Having battled for the unofficial title of the NHL's top player the past five seasons with Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby has taken an early claim for that honor this season. With Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos entering the discussion in his third year, having scored 20 goals in his first 20 games, Crosby has stepped it up and is on pace for the best season of his career.
As highly valuable Penguin center Jordan Staal has missed the first two months of the season with two consecutive injuries and Evgeny Malkin is struggling with the worst numbers of his young career, Crosby has kicked in another gear altogether and is nearly single-handedly leading his team to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Crosby has exploded to 23 goals and 46 points in his first 28 games. That's six points ahead of Stamkos for the league lead and a ridiculous 20 points more than next-best scorer Kris Letang, to lead the Penguins. He is easily on pace for career bests in goals (67) and points (134) if he keeps up this pace.
It's likely that when Jordan Staal finally returns to action, some of the pressure (and perhaps minutes) will be off Crosby, but there se ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Arto Jaakkola
With Stamkos Rising, Sidney Crosby Is Proving He Is the Best Player in the NHL
December 6th, 2010 by Arto Jaakkola Leave a reply »
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