Could this be Sidney Crosby's final playoff game? Or possibly his final game with the Penguins? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Pittsburgh Penguins exceeded the expectations of many who believed they wouldn’t be a Stanley Cup playoff team this season. But in their first-round matchup against their arch-rival Philadelphia Flyers, the Penguins have been exposed – too old, too slow, too inferior in net – and the Pens are now down 3-0 in the series with the Flyers.
The end appears near for Pittsburgh, and that brings to mind questions nobody on the Penguins wants to ask – and that’s regarding the future of Penguins superstar center Sidney Crosby: Are we watching the final playoff games of Crosby’s Hockey-Hall-of-Fame career? And if this is how Crosby’s playoff experience ends, is it going to color his legacy negatively?
To answer the first question – yes, this could likely be Crosby’s final few games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He’s 38 years old, and the Penguins are in the early stages of a major rebuild. It’s entirely likely that Pittsburgh finishes out of the playoff mix next season, and it’s just as likely that the Penguins fail to make the playoffs the year after that.
The Pens can barely keep up with the young Flyers in these playoffs, and the Metropolitan Division has several teams that will pass Pittsburgh in the standings sooner rather than later, beginning next season. The trajectory the Pens are on is not a good one.
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But let’s say Crosby has one more playoff push in him. If he and the Penguins can exceed expectations this year, they might exceed expectations next year as well. Unfortunately, the future of Pittsburgh icon Evgeni Malkin may result in Malkin’s retirement this summer, and fellow core member Kris Letang’s game has fallen off considerably, as he’s a minus-five and pointless in three playoff games against the Flyers this year.
So, unless he intends to go on a Jaromir-Jagr-like NHL run into his mid-forties, the end of his playoff days is coming up fast on Crosby. With every shift that Crosby takes, the road ahead for him and the Pens is splitting into two, with each road moving farther away from the other day by day.
The Penguins have to do what’s in their best interests, and the same goes for Crosby. While it seems blasphemous to envision Crosby in another team’s uniform, the truth is that the best opportunity for Crosby to win one more Cup almost assuredly will be with a team other than Pittsburgh.
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But if that doesn’t happen and Crosby stays loyal to the Pens, Crosby wouldn’t be the first NHL legend whose playoff career ends with a disappointing thud. In fact, most legends go out that way. It’s exceedingly rare for players to win a Cup, then call it a career. Crosby may go out without playing another playoff game after this Flyers series.
As one of the sport’s all-time greats, Crosby deserves all the flowers we can give him while he’s still playing. If these are his final handful of playoff games, we should be giving him thunderous standing ovations at every opportunity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of the Penguins or a fan of any other NHL team – you owe a few hand-claps to a player who has been one of the best ambassadors the sport has ever seen.
Crosby will be a first-ballot, no-brainer Hall-of-Fame pick because he’s done the right thing 99.9 percent of the time. If these are the final times we get to see him participating in the toughest tournament on the planet, we need to say thanks for the great memories he’s given us.
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