PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby didn’t know about the pictures of him Flyers fans had placed in urinals around the Wells Fargo Center Sunday afternoon.
But when he was told, he wasn’t necessarily surprised either.
“It’s not the first building that’s happened in,” Crosby said. “I don’t know if they stole that idea from someone else, but that’s not the first time that’s happened.”
In addition to a subtle dig at Philadelphians’ lack of originality, Crosby got the last laugh on the ice Sunday, scoring four points — a goal and three assists — in the Penguins’ 5-1 Game 3 win.
He now has 15 points in nine career playoff games in Philadelphia. That’s in addition to 43 points in 30 regular season visits here.
Since 2006-07, Crosby and the Penguins are 19-11-2 in Philadelphia during the regular season, and 4-4 in the playoffs.
“I just think it’s an indication of how competitive he is,” Mike Sullivan said. “I think he thrives in that environment. I think he has a comfort level in that environment. When the stakes are high, if we’re in an away building and they’re important games, Sid tends to play his best.”
At no time was that more important for the Penguins than the first period Sunday. Hemmed in their own zone against a swarming Flyers’ forecheck, offensive chances were few and far between.
So when Crosby and Patric Hornqvist paired up to take advantage of a Flyers’ misplay in their defensive zone, it was a golden opportunity to silence the orange-clad crowd. That’s exactly what Crosby did with a wraparound score, his fourth goal of the series.
“I thought Sid was a big reason that our team settled down,” Sullivan said.
The goal was also big for Crosby personally. He missed a number of high-quality chances in the Penguins’ 5-1 Game 2 loss, so it felt good for him to cash in on this one.
“You have to move on,” Crosby said. “When you get a couple of looks and they don’t go in, you’ve got to turn the page. It was good to get one early and I think that always makes a big difference as far as being able to forget about it.”
That goal was probably the most important play Crosby made Sunday afternoon, but it may not have been the most impressive. That probably came early in the second period, on the faceoff immediately following Evgeni Malkin’s power-play goal to put the Penguins up 3-0.
Crosby won the draw forward, corralled it himself and fed a perfect cross-ice feed to Brian Dumoulin, who beat Brian Elliott to make the score 4-0 and effectively put the game out of reach.
“I think we were just trying to play quick and however it worked out, it worked out,” Crosby said. “Dumo made a great read to jump in the play there and give us some numbers on the rush. I think we were just trying to play fast and it ended up that we were able to get a good bounce there.”
Dumoulin said Crosby didn’t tell him beforehand that he was going to try to win the draw forward, but he knew to be ready for it regardless.
“Sid made that read to go forward off the draw, won it to himself,” Dumoulin said. “I’ve seen him do that a bunch of times. He made a great look over the shoulder. A lot of guys won’t see that second wave, but he made a great pass and obviously I was just trying to shoot the puck in on net, try to score. He made that play happen and it was a great play off the faceoff.”
Crosby tends to underplay his impressive numbers against Flyers — and did so once again when asked after the game Sunday — but his success in games like this and venues like this certainly isn’t lost on his teammates.
“He always rises up to the challenge,” Dumoulin said. “I’ve seen it the past couple of runs where he fights through everything, fights through checks and he doesn’t complain. If I took that beating that he does every night, I’d be one sore guy. He never complains about it, he just continues to work hard. That’s our leader and obviously it trickles down from there.”
The boos and negative chants towards Crosby were loud and robust during warmups. They were a whole lot quieter afterwards when he was announced as the game’s first star.
“He doesn’t get rattled, he doesn’t get fazed by any of the adversity, anything that a high-stakes environment might present to other players,” Sullivan said. “He just thrives on it and that’s why he’s the elite player that he is, and that’s why he’s as accomplished as he is.”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG.
First Published: April 15, 2018, 11:54 p.m.
