Penguins/NHL
Crosby Post-Game Comments Sidney Crosby’s return to game action could not have went better. Crosby logged 15:54 of ice time, tallying 2 goals and 2 assists, in addition to a team high 8 shots on goal, a +3 rating, and going 67.1% in the faceoff circle, winning 14 of 21 draws.
Crosby at even strength had 10:34 of ice time and 3 points, while logging 4:23 of ice time on the power play and recorded his first power play point of the season, assisting on Evgeni Malkin’s power play marker 3:17 into the second period.
Crosby was in on more than half of the Penguins scoring chances, being on the ice for 8 of a team total 14 scoring chances.
Here are Crosby’s post-game comments and the Penguins captain was made at himeself for taking a couple hard hits early on:
On being out there: “âThe goals and assists were great but just being back out there, I can’t really describe it.” For me, obviously I will have a great memory of this one for a lot of different reasons. The main thing was just the joy of playing.”
On tonight’s crowd: âI expected people to be loud but that was far beyond what I expected. That was special.â
On preparing for this game compared to Gold Medal Game, ect: “Of all of those games, this one was probably the easiest one to prepare for because it felt like I was waiting forever and I kind of was in a way, but I’ve been waiting a long time to have this chance to go out there and whether I scored the goals or whatever happened, I was going to make sure I gave it my best effort. There was a lot of energy in store there after missing that amount of time. So,yes it was just something I was waiting for a long time and glad it went well.”
On emotion of first goal: “Obviously, really exciting. Part of waiting to play, also waiting to get that first one and came pretty early which was nice. It was pretty exciting.”
On taking hard hits early on “I was just mad at myself for putting my self in those positions. I was flat footed, standing up straight, pretty easy target there. Once your on the bench and realize everything’s good, that’s always a good feeling. Was glad I got that over with early on. There’s going to be more hits and probably harder ones, so, I think it gives you some reassurance,….. didn’t think I needed it, but it’s always good in this process to get those out of the way early.”
On his level of play: “I felt pretty good but certain areas where pucks {were} in my feet, little things that are just game situations that you have to get use to reacting to, getting ready….other parts i was pretty happy with how it went. There are still things I need to improve on. I didn’t play a whole lot.”
Crosby on pace of game: “I think as the game went on, just got better and better. Think first period felt pretty quick. On the {first} goal, I saw for a fair bit of time there, at least few seconds, {they were} pretty flat footed on blueline there, so, I just tried to get up into the play, think it was Duper who might have pushed puck over there, but, I was able to get some good speed built up when I got it, knew I had a chance to go wide and wanted to get a shot off, so that’s basically what I saw.”
Quote of the Night: “I’m not going to make predictions but he’s {Sidney Crosby} on a pretty good pace right now, ” Dan Bylsma said when asked about Crosby catching Phil Kessel for the NHL points lead.
