Earlier this season, Sidney Crosby was scoring on an unsustainable percentage of his shots ... yet many wondered: “This is Sidney Crosby, is it possible that he could just keep doing this?”
Well, the bounces have slowed a touch - he came into Friday with a 17.1 shooting percentage - but he justified such doubts by absurdly scoring a goal off of Henrik Lundqvist’s head.
... And he did it on purpose.
Sid on if this was planned: "Yeah, there was a bit of daylight there. I tried to get it in that area. It was nice to see it go in the net." pic.twitter.com/CnOVnzIydz
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 1, 2017
That goal came after Crosby began the night’s scoring with an assist on a Jake Guentzel goal, which placed him second all-time in Penguins history in assists, ahead of Jaromir Jagr.
Crosby set up the play. That means he has now surpassed Jagr for sole possession of 2nd place on the #Pens all-time assist list with 641 -MC
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) April 1, 2017
One has to feel a bit for Lundqvist, both for being the victim of that bit of Crosby genius and for the notion that his flurry of first-period saves has likely been made irrelevant.
Crosby has scored 22 goals against Lundqvist, easily the most he’s generated vs. any goalie.
Update: The Penguins nabbed a 4-3 shootout win thanks a (wait for it) shootout-winner by Crosby.
Matt Murray made a fantastic stop in overtime, too:
some replays of that murray save pic.twitter.com/rggYTfZKvH
— steph (@myregularface) April 1, 2017
Furthermore, Friday was very friendly to the Penguins, as both the Blue Jackets and Capitals lost in regulation.
The Penguins are unlikely to catch the Capitals in such a small period of time, but a round of home-ice advantage became far more plausible after this night:
1. Capitals - 110 points in 77 games
2. Blue Jackets - 106 points in 77 games
3. Penguins - 105 points in 77 games
Pittsburgh’s next two games are interesting, as they host the desperate and red-hot Hurricanes on Sunday and the Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Both of those games are at home, and then they close out 2016-17 with three consecutive contests on the road.