Crosby blends in as Penguins stand tall against Rangers

Sidney Crosby sat back in his stall, a black Penguins cap low over his smiling face, telling reporters that he was glad he had not wrecked his team’s winning streak. “I didn’t want to be that guy,” he said, laughing, moments after the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Rangers, 5-2. “I thought everyone played great, and I’m happy we got the win.” Even though a horde of news media members had descended on Madison Square Garden on Thursday to witness Crosby’s second comeback from concussion symptoms this season, he was not the game’s big star. This time, he was just part of the band, part of a Penguins team that has won 10 games in a row, 22 of its last 27, and has pulled within 4 points of the Rangers for first place in the Eastern Conference. Crosby, playing with a variety of linemates, had excellent numbers: he played a modest 16 minutes and had one assist, which extended his personal point streak against the Rangers to 13 consecutive games. He also went plus-3, and of his 18 shifts, the Rangers got the better of him in only one or two. Crosby was far from the best Penguin on the ice, however, and that is exactly what makes Pittsburgh so frightening. Maybe the Penguins are, as Rangers General Manager Glen Sather said Wednesday, the “best team in the league.” On Thursday, there was Matt Cooke, who scored two goals, including one 2 minutes 54 seconds into the game, during Crosby’s first shift. There was Evgeni Malkin, who retook the N.H.L. scoring lead with his 39th goal and 85th point of the season, and Chris Kunitz, whose third-period goal was set up by Crosby. There were the defensemen Kris Letang, who had missed five games with concussion symptoms, and Paul Martin, who missed two with the flu; Letang went plus-5 and Martin plus-3. There was goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 29 of 31 shots for his 38th win of the season, the second highest total in the league. But what makes the Penguins so fearsome is the Penguins’ trio of centers, Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal, all of whom had major injuries over the last two seasons. This was only the 11th game they played together since New Year’s Day 2011. “They’re trying to match up against Evgeni Malkin’s line, and we’ve got Jordan Staal on our bench and Sidney Crosby on our bench,” said Coach Dan Bylsma, summing up the Rangers’ dilemma, and that of every other team the Penguins will face in their final 13 games. “That’s tough to play against.” The Rangers tried to put Brian Boyle on against Crosby at first, but sometimes Brad Richards matched up against him. Only Boyle had any success, but it was fleeting. The Penguins are a flying circus, and adding the world’s best player to the mix merely adds another ace pilot to the squadron. As Craig Adams put it Thursday afternoon when asked what it meant to have Crosby back in the lineup: “We’re a better team than we were yesterday.” The game at the Garden was only Crosby’s ninth since the start of the 2010-11 season. During that time, he missed 101 games – 108 counting last season’s playoffs. Crosby, who won the Most Valuable Player award and an Olympic gold medal by age 22, had already scored 32 goals and 66 points in the first half of the 2010-11 season. But he went down with a concussion after taking hits to the head on Jan. 1 and Jan. 5, 2011. He missed the last 41 games of the season and the playoffs, as well as the first 20 games of this season. He finally came back Nov. 21 scoring 2 goals and 2 assists in a spectacular comeback against the Islanders in Pittsburgh. He played a total of eight games, scoring 2 goals and 10 assists, then went out again after Dec. 5 with recurring concussion symptoms. Those turned out to be related to a previously undiscovered soft-tissue injury in his neck, which kept him out until Thursday. Crosby said that in the eight games of his earlier comeback he sought out contact to test himself. This time out he stayed away from contact, and no Rangers got close to him. Thursday was Crosby’s ninth game since the start of the season. He tried to keep things simple, and he tried to stay away from getting hit by the Rangers. “I tried not to put myself in a position to initiate it,” Crosby said. Bylsma said: “We did talk about it, and talked about what was going through his mind in those eight games. This time he just had a different approach, a different mind-set.” Crosby summed up that different approach. “I was just trying to calm myself a little more than last time,” he said. “I didn’t want to get caught doing too much. I was just making sure I was responsible out there, doing the right things. All those details are important in games like this. Just trying to make sure I stayed as even-keeled as I could.” On Saturday, the Penguins will play the Devils in Newark, seeking their 11th straight victory, which would be the longest winning streak in the league this season.