Sidney Crosby is leading another strong Penguins run

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in the playoff conversation thanks to a hot stretch from the team, but more importantly, from Sidney Crosby.

The Pens captain has 18 points in his last 10 games while the Penguins have gone 8-1-1, and he finds himself in familiar territory in the scoring leaders, tied for fifth in the league in scoring.

Frank Seravalli and Steven Ellis touched on the Pens – and Crosby’s – hot stretch on Daily Faceoff Live.

Steven Ellis: “There’s a reason why he’s one of the greatest players of his generation. This is someone who has missed a lot of time throughout his career, and every time he misses time, you see Evgeni Malkin seemingly stand up, or you find a couple other guys that will show up and keep things moving along. But this is a group that I feel like has had to play against the odds the last couple years where it’s like ‘Ok, this is a team that’s regressing’. You expect them to eventually start missing the playoffs, but Crosby is keeping things alive here.

Again, one of the reasons why he’s so good is that he’s one of the smartest players in the league, he’s shooting well this year, obviously we know he’s still a good playmaker, but he’s still leading this team. He’s giving his all because the window where Pittsburgh is going to be competitive is closing in.

So, he’s giving it as hard of an effort as we’ve seen in his career, and this team is hard to bet against. Whether it’s injury after injury the last couple years, they continue to find a way to shine through. Or this year, they go through that struggle and they bounce back. This is a team that’s just a mystery sometimes, but then you look at and say ‘Well, Crosby, Malkin, I guess it kind of makes sense.'”

Frank Seravalli: “Sidney Crosby, the NHL’s leader in even strength points. And we take a look at some of the other guys that are the top five scorers in the NHL, including some ties as our guy Matt Larkin pointed out, I’m going to read you their ages. 25, 27, 23, 29, 24, and there’s Sidney Crosby at age 35. Pretty darn impressive for Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.”