OTTAWA — Sidney Crosby sat quietly, his arms folded, in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ locker room on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
He knows he hasn’t been at his best since returning to the lineup a week ago. He knows his team’s level of play has suddenly dipped at the worst possible time.
And he knows exactly what he must do.
Crosby said all of the right things during our chat following Pittsburgh’s 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, and every word surely was sincere. He said it’s up to him to lead the way. He said he hasn’t been good enough. He said his team hasn’t been good enough. It was the kind of accountability and leadership we’ve come to expect from the greatest captain in hockey.
It was vintage Crosby.
Now, it’s time for vintage Crosby to show up on the ice. Maybe it’s an unfair ask of a 38-year-old returning from a torn MCL, but salvaging this season might depend on it.
The Penguins suddenly have many problems.
Goaltenders Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner have been horribly subpar in recent games. While the Penguins collectively haven’t been good in front of them, the goaltending performance has dipped in a very big way. Should the Penguins turn to Sergei Murashov? Probably. Will they? It’s difficult to say. Will it make a difference? It’s anybody’s guess. There is a sense that the Penguins are broken defensively right now, that they’re going to keep allowing goals at a fairly steady rate.
One way or the other, this wasn’t a team constructed to win 2-1 games.
Other than the great Erik Karlsson, everyone on the blue line is struggling.
And now, there are suddenly issues among the forward group that has carried the Penguins all season.
Evgeni Malkin was brilliant in his return to the lineup from suspension last week in Denver. He was not good in his next three games. And now, he can’t stay healthy.
Anthony Mantha is hurt, too.
So is Blake Lizotte, who figures to miss the rest of the regular season with a broken hand. The fan base seems enamored with Elmer Soderblom, and while there is potential there, the fourth line simply isn’t the same without Lizotte.
Justin Brazeau, so good in the season’s first half, has scored twice in his past 19 games.
For reasons that defy explanation, the Penguins are keeping Ville Koivunen in the NHL while Rutger McGroarty remains in Wilkes-Barre.
Yeah, there are problems. The Penguins still look like a reasonable bet to make the playoffs based on the standings and their schedule — if they can survive the next week, things lighten up considerably down the stretch — but if you’ve been watching them play in recent games, chances are you feel otherwise.
Enter Crosby.
He hasn’t been horrible since returning to the lineup. Far from it. He’s produced at least one point in each of his four games back in the lineup, with five points in all.
Crosby, however, hasn’t been himself. He’s searching for his game. He hasn’t been as dynamic as usual and hasn’t looked especially alert. This is all typical for him when he’s in a funk. It happens to him as much as it does to mere mortals.
The problem is, he isn’t just any other player. And these are serious times.
Expectations around the league were extremely low for the Penguins five months ago, yet they have enjoyed a dream season, with a postseason berth now the clear goal. Reaching the playoffs for the first time in four years would be a big deal on many levels. It would reinvigorate a stagnant season ticket fan base. It would create a surge of interest in Pittsburgh that the Penguins haven’t enjoyed in years. It would perhaps convince Crosby to sign another contract, hanging around for a while longer under the belief that this team is going places. It would give Malkin some ammunition for his chat with Kyle Dubas this summer.
Missing the playoffs would not only be a profound disappointment for the Penguins, but it also would force the fan base — and Dubas — to confront some unpleasant realities.
Crosby can eliminate all of the concerns.
He nearly pulled off a stunning feat two springs ago when the Penguins, left for dead in the standings, turned stunningly hot down the stretch and nearly reached the playoffs. Starting with the Penguins’ loss to Colorado on March 24, 2024, Crosby produced nine goals and 25 points in his final 13 games of the season. He nearly pulled off an unexpected playoff run, but the Penguins fell painfully short.
Fast-forward two years, and the Penguins are better now than they were then, and are actually in playoff position. They aren’t doing the chasing this time, but it probably feels that way.
As fate would have it, the Penguins lost to Colorado on March 24, 2026. When it happened two years ago, Crosby, ignited by a sniff of the postseason, took his game to an entirely different place.
It won’t be easy this time. He is two years older, and while he’s obviously healthy enough to play, he may still be operating with some discomfort. The schedule is brutal for another week. The Eastern Conference playoff race is suffocating.
It’s a lot.
We are on the verge of Crosby enduring the most frustrating season of his life. He was three wins away from winning a third gold medal in three Olympic appearances when Radko Gudas knocked him out of the quarterfinals. Crosby tried with all of his might to play in the gold-medal game, but no physician would have cleared him to play. So he helplessly watched as Jack Hughes put a dent in the 21st-century Canadian dynasty that Crosby helped build. He hasn’t spoken much about how painfully frustrating it must have been. There is no question that it was torture, and there was reason to believe Canada would have won that game had Crosby played; the idea of him losing his final Olympic game borderline amusing.
But he never got the chance.
Sidney Crosby acknowledged he hasn’t been good enough after the Penguins’ 6-2 loss to the Avalanche on Wednesday. (Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
Will he get the opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs again? Only so many years remain in his career, and of particular importance to him is lacing up the skates in the playoffs with Malkin and Kris Letang, even if for one final time. It would mean everything to him to hear the crowd roar at PPG Paints Arena while the Big Three take playoff ice.
Malkin is hurt. Letang is floundering. The Penguins have given up 48 goals in their past 11 games. Their depth is fading due to injuries. The relentless pack of Eastern Conference contenders has no sympathy. And Crosby hasn’t looked right since returning to the lineup.
Captain Canada finds himself in the capital of his homeland tonight, in a building that has rarely been kind to him. It’s not quite must-win time, but it’s getting there.
Maybe Crosby’s teammates will find their way, much as they have all season. Maybe they’ll fail, just as they were predicted to before the season.
Or maybe Crosby will put them on his back, one last time.
He did not seem overwhelmed after the loss to Colorado, nor did he even seem annoyed. Rather, there was a laser focus on his face, one that hadn’t been evident since his return.
Crosby would surely like more time to find his game following a month-long absence. He often says that, as he ages, he plays better when the schedule is busier. Long layoffs impact him more than they used to.
One look at the standings, however, prohibits him from taking time to find his game.
If Crosby is to get his postseason wish — he’s the one who wanted to put off a complete rebuild to get back to the dance, and he’s the one who fumed last year because Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals figured out a way to rebuild on the fly while the Penguins stayed at home during the playoffs — then, fairly or not, he’ll likely need to carry them.
The degree of difficulty is high. So are the stakes. Coming this far, only to miss out on the postseason, would be a massive blow to Crosby and the Penguins.
“I have to lead the way,” Crosby said Tuesday night.
With that, he marched out of the locker room with the look of a man on a mission.
