Remember the Sidney Crosby who put up 32 goals and 34 assists in just 41 games?

Not many Penguins fans were optimistic that form of Sidney Crosby would return. When the season kicked off in October, the Penguins had high hopes their all-star loaded roster would score at will. That did not happen. Crosby accumulated a total of one goal in 11 games to start the season. The team ranked in the bottom five of the league in goals per game throughout November. With the acquisition of Phil Kessel over the summer, it was a bold signal from general manager Jim Rutherford that this Penguins team was punching its ticket for “win-now mode.”

The Pittsburgh Penguins limped into the holidays, posting an 18-15-4 record through the end of December. How many scorers would you guess sat above Crosby in mid-December? On Dec. 14, Crosby ranked 88th in league scoring. There were 87 players outscoring number 87, who has been the face of the NHL over the past decade. Hardly the lofty standards typically set on the Penguins in the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era.

Over that span, the Penguins posted 2.19 goals per game. For reference, in the 2011-12 season, the Pens scored 3.44 goals per game. The following season, the Pens scored 3.437. In the Penguins’ previous two seasons, they were scoring at a pace of 2.866 goals per game. Over the last few years, scoring in the NHL has been down as a whole, which certainly accounts for some of the Penguins’ early season scoring struggles. But a drop in production that significant had management reeling for changes.

Out went head coach Mike Johnston, who manned the bench for 110 regular season games, accumulating 58 wins, 37 losses and 15 shootout and overtime losses.

Crosby’s numbers under Johnston plummeted from his historically high points per game average, where he currently sits at 5th all-time with 1.33. That is higher than Hall of Famers Marcel Dionne, Steve Yzerman and Peter Stastny. Under Johnston, Crosby was on pace for a 60 point season. That was not the version of Sidney Crosby that Pittsburgh has built its franchise around. GM Jim Rutherford promoted coach Mike Sullivan from the Penguins’ American Hockey League Affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Head coach Mike Sullivan may have just ignited the Sidney Crosby that NHL teams have come to fear, though. In his last eight home games, Crosby has amassed 12 goals. He is currently on an eight-game point streak, with 14 points in those eight games, which is the longest active streak in the league. He racked up 11 goals in January, three more goals than any other player. During Sullivan’s reign, Crosby has had 26 points in 18 games. That is 1.44 points per game. The NHL appears to have its poster boy back.

Crosby is the heartbeat of the Penguins and with a roster boasting Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Phil Kessel and Marc-Andre Fleury, Crosby needs to be the leader to march the Penguins back to the upper echelon of the league. Crosby has rocketed up the scoring race, now sitting at 6th in league scoring, with 53 points in 51 games. Under his leadership, the Penguins eye a playoff birth come April.

Evgeni Malkin told reporters that the Penguins were making the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it finally seems as if the rest of the team is starting to believe it. With the resurgence of Sidney Crosby’s dominance and the rest of the team around him clicking, Pittsburgh will look to ride the wave of momentum into the postseason.

Crosby has been on fire lately, scoring goals in seven-straight games, including a hat-trick against the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 2, and a two-goal performance in the teams’ last outing against the Anaheim Ducks.

The Penguins’ guns are firing on all cylinders. Crosby has been the leading the team recently, even in the absence of some other key players on the Penguins roster. The Pens are missing Evgeni Malkin and fourth-line center Eric Fehr, meaning Crosby will look to do what he has historically done throughout his career.

Dominate.  

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