Sidney, Sidney, burning bright

What's scarier for the opposition than Brooks Orpik's permanently dilated eyes? How about the existence of Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby?

The Minnesota Wild come trick-or-treating tonight at the door of Mellon Arena, with some understandable trepidation.  It has nothing to do with the potential to be on the receiving end of a Brooks Orpik bone-crunching hit (“free-candy”, as the jokesters at thepensblog.com would say.)

No, the Wild will be walking into a Hallowe’en house haunted by the defending Stanley Cup champions, off to a league-best start at 11-2-0, winning games in ghoulishly different ways.  On Wednesday evening, the Penguins simply overwhelmed Montreal 6-1, while last evening, the Penguins edged the Blue Jackets at Columbus 4-3 in a shootout, coming back from two goals down with under three minutes remaining in regulation.

In both games, the difference maker was Sidney Crosby, who is quietly raising his game to new heights this season.  There will be detractors, always, that downplay Crosby’s contributions, the type who think Michael Jordan shot the ball too much or that Tiger Woods is all washed up after frittering away the lead at Hazeltine this summer, but for the rest of us, consider:

If there was ever a prototypical week to show the career arc of Sidney Crosby, this last week of October fit the bill.  Damien Cox of the Toronto Star reported that Crosby spoke up during an NHLPA conference call and told interim executive director Ian Penny to hang up the phone because players wanted to have a players-only discussion.  Crosby knows his stature in the sport and while we cannot and should not extrapolate too much from a solitary action, it seems Crosby has taken it upon himself to call for a reclamation of the players union by and for the players.  Not surprisingly, Penny was sacked yesterday, as the NHLPA, the smashed pumpkin of professional sports labour organizations, once again searches for direction and a new leader.

On Tuesday, Crosby accepted the honour of being one of the torchbearers for the Winter Olympic Torch Relay.

On Wednesday night, Crosby dismantled the Canadiens, scoring his fourth career hat trick, exactly three years to the day he netted his first one.  For those who remember Crosby exploding for fifteen goals during last spring’s playoffs and wonder if he is polishing another area of skill, Crosby confirmed such musings on the Jim Rome Show on Thursday.  “[I'm] trying to shoot more.  Definitely to start the season that’s something I’ve tried to focus on and [I've] been fortunate enough to see the puck go in, but you don’t score if you don’t shoot the puck so I’ve been trying to do that a little more.”

Then for a second straight Friday night, the Penguins came back from a two-goal third period deficit to force overtime.  Last week, Crosby scored on the power play, short-handed and the lone shootout goal to give the Pens a home victory over Florida.  Yesterday, he scored two points, assisting on the game-tying goal, then once again netted the lone shootout goal to give the Penguins a road win at Columbus.  Crosby is now 4 for 4 on shootout attempts.  He came in to the season with a success rate of just 32%.

Think he worked on sharpening some skills over the summer?

Another area of improvement Crosby has demonstrated is his success in the faceoff circle.  His faceoff win percentages in chronologic order from his rookie season are: 45.5, 49.8, 51.4 and 51.3.  This season, after thirteen games, his win percentage has jumped to 58.7.

Think he worked on sharpening some skills over the summer?

The detractors will scoff and talk about small sample sizes and early season statistical randomness, but I have no doubt that these trends will hold throughout the rest of the season.  Obviously, I don’t believe that Crosby will be perfect on shootouts, but I do think he’ll be among the top shootout scorers and top faceoff men when the season winds up.  If ever there was a season to take his game to new heights, Crosby has picked the right one.  He is the captain of a team that, as defending champion, has a target on their backs for every game.  He will be the face of Team Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics whether he is the captain or not.

Crosby has a history of rising to meet new challenges at every stage of his hockey career.  That will be a “treat” for his many fans, but a bitter “trick” for opponents and his many detractors.