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What can Sidney Crosby do for an encore tonight?

New York Islanders v Pittsburgh Penguins

PITTSBURGH, PA - NOVEMBER 21: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins takes the ice for warmups against the New York Islanders for the first time since sustaining a concussion on January 5 during the game on November 21, 2011 at CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

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It’ll be Sidney Crosby’s second game back tonight when the Penguins face the St. Louis Blues and after the phenomenal first game back Crosby had, just what could we see for an encore? If you’re thinking it’ll be more of the same, you might wind up being a bit let down.

Crosby and the Penguins going up against the Blues, who we saw lose a hard luck game to the Kings on Versus last night, means we’ll likely see Brian Elliott get the call in goal for St. Louis. Not to dumb things down for you too much here but Brian Elliott is a lot better in goal than Anders Nilsson.

Also factoring into things is the coaching of Ken Hitchcock. If there’s anyone that knows Crosby well by now it’s Hitch. After being an assistant coach on the 2010 Canadian Olympic team that won gold, if anyone’s got an inside line as to how Crosby will work it’ll be Hitchcock. Of course knowing how to work against Crosby and having the personnel to pull it off are two totally different things.

The Blues defense was mostly good in handling the Kings last night aside from two brutal errors by Barrett Jackman. Mistakes like that would open the door for another offensive explosion by the Pens. Don’t bank on that happening again, though.

The storybook way this goes is if Crosby does have another big game. The legend grows and the myth making begins in earnest and we’ll be spoiled by seeing him bust out in two out of two games. Realistically, however, things get toned down a bit tonight. Then again, there’s a reason why they play the games. Let the fun begin once again.