“Well, I don’t know if I fit into the older players category …” said Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, after laughing at a question from Pittsburgh Hockey Now about older players struggling to get their legs up this compressed season of COVID.
Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Claude Giroux, Eric Staal, Anze Kopitar are just some of the established names in their 30s who are scoring well below normal or have struggled with injuries.
A crazy statistic was sent to me on Monday night by a former director of public relations for the team.
“See, Daniel Sprong and Conor Sheary have as many goals this season as Ovi!”
I looked for it. It is true. The Washington Capitals powerhouse has two goals. The same is true of the rejected Sprong and Sheary penguins. Giroux has a goal. Staal has five points from 10 games. Kopitar also has only one goal.
To be fair, Ovechkin lost several games after the NHL put him in the COVID protocol for visiting a teammate’s hotel room.
Malkin’s struggles are well documented in Pittsburgh. He admitted the decrease in conditioning and its struggles, which were directly linked to the closure of a pandemic and the lack of training ground.
“I understand that I’m not playing very well now,” said Malkin last week. “It is a different season. Short training ground. No pre-season games. It’s a little bit different, for sure, ”said Malkin. “I need to look at myself in the mirror. I need to find my body, find myself and help the team to win for sure and I understand that ”.
Unfortunately, I have the unique ability to offend effortlessly. It’s my superpower, just like Sidney Crosby scores points or effortlessly rips out discs for a lacrosse-style attempt. Fortunately, Mr. Crosby laughed at the term “older player”, even though he is 33 years old.
No offense, Sid, you’re a bit older player. Do you remember being 20 and looking at people in their 30s? Time flies, but I digress.
“I don’t know. It’s not easy for anyone. It’s a short camp and things like that. Everyone prepares differently and has their own opinion,” said Crosby. “For me personally, I didn’t play much hockey last year. I love being able to enter the games and play every other day. ”
Crosby is one of the “other side” of, say, more experienced players. Patrice Bergeron, Patrick Kane, John Tavares are players in their 30s who are destroying everything. Crosby scored four goals and four assists in 10 games. Kane and Bergeron are scoring points per game.
“I don’t know if I fit into the old category or not, but I like (the schedule),” he concluded.
This is appropriate. Sidney Crosby wants to play hockey and play more hockey.
But there is a clear difficulty for many players in finding a rhythm. Is it more difficult for older players to stay alert? It seems so, especially since Pittsburgh Penguins Bryan Rust and Jason Zucker seem to be in their game. Young Penguins players like Kasperi Kapanen, Teddy Blueger and PO Joseph also needed less ramp-up.
As part of his mea culpa, Malkin has probably spoken for many players.
“No (I didn’t do the same training in this off season) because of the situation. Everything was closed in Russia too. We had ice, but we didn’t have gyms. Everything was closed and (training) was not easy to find, ”said Malkin. “I will not say that it is my fault. (Off-season training) is not the same as a training ground. I was doing my best. I skated every day and tried to exercise afterwards; use my body. Do squats, push-ups. “
But Crosby, whose sources said “he worked like an animal” during the pandemic, was successful early in the season. For the rest of mortals, the beginning of the season has been the training grounds. The teams and players we see now must continue to improve.
Everything should improve. Maybe even the Pittsburgh Penguins’ power game too.
Editor’s note: We removed Sean Couturier from the list of players in their 30s who are struggling or injured.
