from Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star,

Lots of teams wobble. Lots of teams shake. The Penguins have been hit by injuries, and that hurts, and they probably make the playoffs because they play the wobbling Islanders and Buffalo to end the season.

But whether they do or not may not be the issue. The Penguins may get into the playoffs, and the Senators could pass the Islanders instead, or the Bruins, or the Red Wings. Pittsburgh, though, is always different, because only Pittsburgh has two generational players on the back half of their primes, and are therefore a ticking clock.

And for the last five years, every season has ended in the same way: Crosby sitting in his locker, drained, suppressing anger as best he can. People who knew Crosby used to say that he knew he could never catch Gretzky when it came to pure production, or even relative production: his best chance at legacy was Stanley Cups.

And that’s hard, because that’s the goal over which Crosby has the least control. He’s been blessed by Evgeni Malkin, but he has also played on teams that were muffled by Jaroslav Halak, and teams that have come apart at the seams once they got punched in the mouth by Philadelphia or Boston, and a team that blew a 3-1 lead to the Rangers last season while Brian Gibbons skated on his wing. A decade in and he has one Cup, all told.

And this season, by Crosby’s standards, he has dropped a little.

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