Sidney Crosby’s game-winner was a big deal north of the border, with his highlight-reel goal in Tuesday’s battle against Connor McDavid and the Oilers leading TSN’s version of “Sportscenter.” A day later, the local media here was still buzzing over that individual effort in overtime.
“It counts as one. It doesn’t matter how pretty they are,” Crosby said. “But it’s nice to get ones like that. It’s probably been a while since I had a nice one like that, so I’ll take it.”
He was relieved to finally get any goal after going scoreless in the first six games.
“I had some really good chances,” Crosby said. “It’s one thing when you’re not getting the chances. You’ve got to work to get them. But I felt like I had some open nets or breakaways, ones that should have been in the net that I didn’t find a way to put in. When you miss the easy ones like that, you’ve just got to work harder and make sure you bear down.”
Crosby added: “I was fortunate to get a couple [Tuesday] and want to keep it going.”
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan called the winner “one of the best goals” he’s ever seen and joked, “That was how we drew it up before overtime.”
“I can’t remember seeing a highlight-reel goal like that one in a long time,” he said. “It’s just an indication of his talent level, his determination. I think that goal, for me, personifies what Sid is as a player. He had the puck for a long period of time. He had the puck down underneath the hashmarks. I think he’s the best player in the game in that area of the rink. And just his ability to protect pucks, his elusiveness. He’s so hard to defend. So, it was as good a goal as I’ve seen in a long time.”
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel
First Published: October 24, 2018, 9:29 p.m.
