Sidney Crosby's Continued Magic Shadowed By Penguins' Season

Sidney Crosby Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL’s 2023-24 season is drawing to a close. Barring a Vatican-validated miracle, the Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second straight year.

That means, in essence, the Pens have wasted another season of superstar center Sidney Crosby, and there’s no good excuse for it. It’s like having the remaining Beatles members reunite and be confined to a karaoke night at some backwoods bar and grill.

But now it’s clear – with 11 games remaining for them, the Penguins can’t be dragged across the playoff finish line by Crosby. They’re nine standings points behind the Washington Capitals for the second and final wild-card berth, and five Eastern Conference teams are ahead of them in the wild-card race.

Can you really fault Crosby for any of that?

At 36 years old, he’s averaging more than one point per game. With 35 goals and 76 points in 71 games, he’s on pace for a 40-goal, 87-point season. While that’s not as good as he was offensively for the last two seasons, he’s certainly remained a consistently dangerous player even as he arrived at the back nine of his playing career. He’s even got a real shot this season at recording his 1,000th-career NHL assist, something only 13 other players have done in league history.

In some ways, Crosby’s magic has been a distraction from the overall state of the Penguins, and vice-versa. He can’t be blamed for Pittsburgh’s woes this season. If anything, the main problem with the Pens is the supporting cast of characters around Crosby and fellow key cogs Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson.

The Pens are at a clear crossroads as a franchise, and there’s no reason to think the road ahead will be any easier for them than this season has proven to be.

It’s also unfair to put all the pressure on Crosby to continue being the motor behind Pittsburgh’s blueprint for success. As he gets closer to 40 years old, Crosby is going to see his game ebb and his effectiveness wane, and that’s just a product of Father Time affecting him, the same way it affects every other NHL superstar.

Penguins GM Kyle Dubas can rely on Crosby to continue having a notable impact. But the team itself is dealing with a worst-case scenario situation right now, and the road forward is fraught with more potential disappointment.

For instance, let’s assume Crosby stays for the final season of his current contract, with his current $8.7-million salary. Next season, the Pens are already committed to 15 players with a cap hit of $74.7 million, per PuckPedia. That leaves just $12.7 in cap space to fill out the roster. That means Dubas will be hard-pressed to bring in difference-makers to make Crosby’s life easier.

That means the Pens could be in the exact same predicament at this time next year – reliant on Crosby to do the heavy lifting. And that’s not fair to Crosby. If the real problem here is Pittsburgh’s supporting cast, it’s not as if Dubas is guaranteed to acquire players who can give the Pens support beyond the core.

So let’s say Crosby does take a small step backward or sideways next season – what’s the answer then? Barring a young player in Pittsburgh’s drained prospects system taking a giant leap forward, the Penguins are more than likely to remain in the lower middle of the NHL’s pecking order.

And nobody is under the illusion the Penguins are going to trade Crosby – that is unless he wants to be traded. He’s earned the right to be a one-team player for his entire Hockey Hall of Fame career.

It’s never easy to cut the cord from your past, but all teams get to that point at one time or another. The Detroit Red Wings effectively were a dynasty, but that eventually ended. Wings stars, including Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, moved on.

The same goes for the Chicago Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. You can hang on to your core as long as you want, but eventually, you wind up at the same low point as every other NHL team arrives at sooner or later.

After two years of crushing disappointment, the Pens must know it’s time for major change. They don’t necessarily have to clean house, and they can still use Crosby until his game plummets. But the status quo, or anything close to it, should no longer be an option for Dubas and Penguins ownership.

Crosby needs help to keep the Pens a playoff team, and once the off-season arrives, Pittsburgh needs to be moving in a new direction. They’ve been fortunate to be Crosby’s home for nearly two decades, but even Superman needed help from the Justice League to keep the planet safe. Crosby hasn’t had that support, so no one should be surprised his Penguins continue to struggle.