Crosby=Beast

By now all of Penguins land knows that tomorrow night at Consol Energy Center, the best player in the NHL makes his long awaited comeback more than 10 months post multiple concussions ruining what looked like an historic season.  Just to recall, here are some facts about Crosby's season last year.  87 was running away with the scoring title before his season ended in early January.  For some perspective Crosby was clicking at 1.6 points per game, with 32 goals and 34 assists for 66 points and a +20 rating after 41 games!  To put that in perspective, he was in the top 32 in scoring despite missing HALF the season, and finished equal in points to players like Mike Richards and Rick Nash who each played full seasons, and with more points than noted scorers such as Dany Heatley, Phil Kessel, and Nicklas Backstrom all of whom played full seasons.  It is easy to imagine Crosby winning his second Art Ross, beating Daniel Sedin's 104 points, and his second Rocket Richard, beating Corey Perry's 50 goals had he remained healthy. He was on pace for 64 goals and 132 points!  But he did not, and the Penguins missed both he and Evgeni Malkin down the stretch before succumbing to Tampa Bay in the seventh game of their first round playoff series.  How good is Crosby?  Let me just remind you.  Athough this has been done before, timing is everything.  Before he was drafted by the Penguins with the first overall pick of the 2005 draft, Crosby had won the CHL Player of the Year Award two years in a row, and represented Canada in the World Junior Championships twice winning silver in 2004 and gold in 2005.  He also led the Rimouski Oceanic to the Memorial Cup Finals.   Since he was drafted with that first overall pick, Crosby has played in 412 regular season games, scoring 215 goals, 357 assists, 572 points and an overall +65.   That is a 1.38 point per game average!  In the post season, Crosby has played in 62 games with 30 goals and 52 assists for 82 points and a +22 rating.  This is 1.32 points per game in the post season.  You think 87 makes a difference much??  In his first season in the NHL Crosby notched 102 points with 39 goals and 63 assists and finished a close second to Alex Ovechkin for the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year.  In season two, the 2006-07 season Crosby improved to 120 points, or 36 goals and 84 assists to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer.  He was the youngest player and ONLY teenager to EVER win a scoring title in ANY major North American sports league.  He also won the Hart Trophy as the league MVP as voted on by the Hockey Writers Association, and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the league MVP voted on by the NHL Players Association.  He was only the 7th person in history to win all three trophies in a year.  In an injury shortened 2007-08 season, Crosby finished with 72 points in 53 games during the regular season, but tied eventual Conn Smythe winner Henrik Zetterberg in post season scoring with 27 points in the Penguins first run to the Stanley Cup Finals.  The next season, 2008-09 Crosby became the youngest captain to ever win the Stanley Cup, and finished with 31 points, or 15 goals and 16 assists, finishing second to teammate Evgeni Malkin for the Conn Smythe award. He finished the regular season with 33 goals and 70 assists as well.  The 2009-10 season saw Crosby win his first Rocket Richard tropphy as he tied Steven Stamkos for most goals in the NHL with 51 goals and a total of 109 points.  He then scored the game winning goal in overtime in the 2010 Winter Olympics to give Canada the Gold Medal over the United States.  Add all of this to the pace Crosby was on last year, and it is no surprise to see the excitement over the return of 87 to the lineup!  There is nobody like him when he is healthy in the game today.