Thursday, September 15, 2005

Crosby figures in first scrimmage win

The Penguins press release is presented here in its entirety. It is a very good sign for Pens fans and fans of Sidney Crosby. The kid has a lot of pressure on him, specially from Canadian media. Not so different from when Lemieux reported for the first time back in 1984. The advantage Crosby has is Lemieux's experience.

Some have said that the only real difference between Gretzky and Lemieux was their willingness to embrace their role as superstar. Gretzky was natural at it, while it took Lemiuex some time, many years, to get to that point.

Mario was way above Gretz in career points-per-game prior to his comeback in 2000, as the only player above 2.0 points per game. As it stands going into 2005, Mario is just ahead of Gretz in that category, around 1.92 ppg. He had 70+ points in only 43 games in the comeback season, but has mostly been injured since that point. The new rules (some of the "new" are the "old" rules prior to about 1997 or so) and the promised-for-the-umpteenth-time enforcement of the rules against obstruction stand to provide Mario, skating alonside Crosby or Recchi or others, a real chance to gain the extra points back lost to regain the 2.0 career ppg.

QUOTE(pittsburghpenguins.com)
CROSBY FINDS CHEMISTRY IN TOURNAMENT WIN
by Joe Sager
pittsburghpenguins.com
09/15/2005

Instant chemistry.

That’s what the Penguins where looking for and that’s what they found when they paired John LeClair and Mark Recchi with Sidney Crosby. Recchi scored two goals and Crosby and LeClair both had three assists to lead Team Herbie to a 4-1 win over Team Badger in the first game of the Penguins training camp tournament at Mellon Arena on Wednesday.

The LeClair-Crosby-Recchi line clicked instantly. Recchi became Crosby’s top target with the puck.

“I think you could put anyone with (Recchi) and they’d do well,” Crosby said. “Anytime I get the puck I know he’s going to try to get open. John is so big and he can get body position on guys. I think it’s just a matter of finding these guys the puck and they don’t have trouble putting it in.”

Rookie Jonathan Filewich also had a big day. He scored Team Herbie’s other two goals.

“It’s very exciting. It gets me off to a good start and allows me to get some confidence at the beginning, which is key,” he said. “I was so nervous coming to camp here. It was nice to get the nerves out of the way.”

Recchi scored the first goal of the tournament off a nice pass from Crosby, who was behind the net. Recchi beat Sebastien Caron to the stick side for a 1-0 lead. Filewich scored an unassisted goal to boost the edge to 2-0 at the end of the first of two 25-minute periods.

Erik Christensen broke the shutout for Team Badger when he took a pass from Sean Collins and drilled the puck past a drawn-out Marc-Andre Fleury.

Filewich boosted Team Herbie’s lead to 3-1 when he converted on a 2-on-1. Crosby skated down the ice near the far boards. Draped with a defender, he slid a pass across the ice to Filewich, who buried a shot past Caron’s glove hand. It drew cheers from the crowd.

“I was yelling at him the whole way down and I wasn’t too sure if he saw me,” Filewich said. “He made a beautiful pass and I just put my head down and shot. Luckily, it went in.”

Recchi capped the scoring with 7:32 remaining when he converted on a 3-on-1. LeClair broke in on goal and dropped a pass to Crosby at the top of the crease. He slid the puck to the far post where Recchi slammed it home to make it 4-1.

The contest featured the tournament’s first fight as well. In the first period, Dennis Bonvie and Ryan VandenBussche dropped the gloves for a small fray.

Team Francis and Team E.J. take the ice at 11:30 a.m.
http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/team/fea...arts/1336.0.php

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