Penguins/NHL
First Period Breakdown
Special players do special things. All it took for Sidney Crosby was three shifts to bring down the house, scoring his first goal of the season with a great individual play, fending off defenseman Andrew MacDonald with a power move and burying a backhand goal past goaltender Anders Nilsson for a sensational moment.
On the goal Pascal Dupuis did a great job of getting the puck to Crosby in space in the neutral zone and Crosby took it from there.
Crosby wasn’t done after that and contributed on both Penguin goals. He drew a Milan Jurcina cross-checking penalty and later assisted on Brooks Orpik’s (2nd in 4 games) goal at 16:29 of the first period, giving him a goal and an assist in the period.
He also took some hits including a hard hit behind the net from Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic. Overall, Crosby took 4 hits in the first period.
Most impressive about Crosby’s game was how strong he was on the puck.
Crosby’s stat line in period one: 1G – 1 A – 2 Pts – +2 – 4 SOG – 7 Shifts – 7:10 TOI.
Crosby had 3:04 of ice time on the power play and also made his mark in the faceoff circle, winning 5 of 7 draws, 71.4%.
