The Hockey PDOcast - Sidney Crosby's Longevity and Continued Brilliance This Season

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to talk about Sidney Crosby's ability to keep adding things to his game over the years, that impact on the next generation of superstars, and the skills that have allowed him to continue to dominate this season. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the HockeyPedioCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Gerald Belfrey, Daryl. What's going on, man? Ready to go. So this is going to be a fun one. We're going to do Sidney Crosby today.

Year 19 of his NHL career on pace for 47 goals, which is the best clip he's been on since 2016-17 when he scored 44 and 75 games. He's over a point per game. the reason why I say this is going to be a really fun one is because obviously there's a lot of material here for us to sink our teeth into. But I think especially because he's a player whose skills journey, I think we've had the pleasure of tracking along the years, right? He's gained a reputation for sort of maniacally going into the lab every offseason and working on his game and adding tools that he can use to keep beating opponents in different ways, right? And you don't, none of this is by accident. Like you don't enjoy this type of remarkable longevity that he's had in year 19 now without that type of approach.

The game has evolved so much since he came into the league. There's been changes around him every year. There's a new class of players coming in who are more skilled and dynamic than ever before. And so he's had to recalibrate and adjust to that as well. And he's that a remarkable job of doing so. And I think, I don't know about you, but I, that's kind of, I appreciate that about his greatness almost more than anything else. Yeah, like one of the things that's really important to note when it comes to the whole idea of taken off seasons and going into the lab is that we, I see players, of course, it's my business to see players who are looking to get in the lab to reinvent aspects of their game or update them or find more ways to become relevant and sustain their, their NHL career and what's what gets missed along the way is that it's a lot of times those are multiple

off seasons that are needed before you really see that the the real tangible effect so if you're you know if you're four or five years in the league and then all of a sudden you're like oh geez like these players are so much more like the game has gotten a lot faster so i need to improve my speed or whatever the case may be, you're now chasing it. And any time you're chasing it, you haven't left yourself enough time for the impact to actually occur. So what Crosby has done over his career, which is, which he was one of the first guys, I think, to really at the level that he's at, like genuine superstar guy to be in the

lab every year. It's like compound interest, right? Like he is investing every year. So he's doing something like five years ago that he reaped the benefits of three years ago. Then he did something four years ago that he reaped the, you see what I mean? Like it's just so he gets these continual effects that are occurring all the time. And then you get the ancillary benefits of, well, you worked on this. So you obviously also worked on that and then didn't realize that those two things really dovetail close together.

And so now, you know, one plus one all of a sudden equals three and you're getting those benefits maybe beforehand. So the reason that Crosby is able to do so well in every year kind of continue to reinvent pieces of his game or you see different aspects come up and become sharper is because of the continuing. approach to it and that's why it's been so effective. And we only sort of see the end product, right, in terms of its manifestation on the ice. But I think he's been kind of renowned for those work habits and the training, right? And it's kind of expressed in the game setting where he's been sort of, you know, with complete admiration,

referred to as the most talented grinder in the league and you sort of see that. I'm curious because you have a bit of a unique perspective on this, right? because I remember I had you on a couple years ago now, and it was fresh off of you got the sort of experience of getting to watch him and McDavid skate together in preparation for an Olympics that never actually wound up happening. Although, hopefully we do see that combination one day down the road. But I'm just sort of fascinated by this influence, I guess,

he's had on this next generation of superstars, right? Whether it's a McDavid or whether it's a McKinnon, kind of lay in the blueprint and the foundation, because when Crosby came into the league, what it was then compared to what it is now is so dramatic, right? I almost can't like you go back and you watch the tape from games that happened in 2007, 2008. It's almost like it's an entirely different sport that's being played,

yet he's been able to sort of have that longevity by finding that success in both of those extremes. And so I'm so fascinated by that in terms of what he was when he came into the league and then what he is now and kind of, I guess the deep-rooted impact that's had on a lot of the other young stars that we've seen coming to the league in the meantime. So what I think his biggest impact has been is how diligent he is in studying the rest of the league. So if you ever have had the chance or the privilege to be able to spend any time with Sydney, it doesn't take long before you see how much he understands the league. He knows every player. And he knows what the trends are.

He knows he's studied his own game. And he's very intuitive about the development steps that he wants to take with his game. And so because he's so open with the players that he has in his own last, out in Nova Scotia every year, where he has McKinnon and Marshawn and a whole host of players over there, those players then spend time talking to him about those details and about what he's doing.

So then they start to think about it differently. And then he, you know, every year they do, either it's the bios steel camp or some of those other camps. And then all those players then are coming from now everywhere else come in and they spend time talking to him and he's very open about discussing the league and where he's at and what types of things he talks to them about their skill that they might even be thinking about but he's studied them and so and he's watched them and he's admired them and he starts talking about different aspects of their game that he's impressed with and

so what happens is that then that mentality then spirals and this is what I think we're seeing because the Sydney's lab in Nova Scotia is one. Then you have now Matthews has built one in Arizona, where you're starting to see whether it's Tage Thompson or Clayton Keller and some of those players are starting to build their own lab out there. Well, those players have all been influenced in some way by the way in which Crosby has approached it. So because he's done it and because he's so committed to it,

and because he's invited so many players, into his world and been able to share the way in which he thinks, that thought process about the need to study other players, the need to then invest in your own development, the need to be your own player development expert, which Sydney is, and he understands intuitively exactly where he wants to go with his game, and then brings in the players or the resources that he needs to get to that level.

That, to me, is his true. impact on the game. Well, let's get into some of those skills then. And I've got this question from the Discord from a listener named Justin. And I thought I was saving it because he brought this up a couple weeks ago. And I was waiting for this Crosby episode because I thought he would be the perfect subject or entryway for us to get into it. And I think a lot of people who watch the game but haven't necessarily played at a high level or played at all are kind of interested in this. And so we can talk about it is he basically says, for me, the art of tipping.

seems like the most difficult part of hockey. How replicable is it and how much of it is continually trying and just getting lucky? What are the best tippers in the league? Are there certain common characteristics players who are good at it share? So Crosby obviously does it in a very unique and artful fashion, right, in many number of different ways, very creatively, very successfully. But I'm kind of curious about this because obviously as his career has gone on, it's something he's clearly put a lot of work in on and something he's really mastered. And so let's talk a little bit about kind of tipping. And maybe we can even build out our conversation

because I know we got into this during the Gabe Volardi episode a few weeks ago, but kind of just general idea of the modernization, I guess, of the net front player and the responsibilities involved and kind of what goes into all of that. Yeah, tipping is truly an art. I mean, you got a puck coming in. I mean, when you watch the stats and every time someone shoots, I don't know that you see too many shots that are coming in at under 80, 85 miles an hour.

So you got a shot coming in 85 miles an hour. It's coming through traffic. It's on a trajectory that is not eye level. It's coming at a trajectory that starts at the ice and then starts to, if it's coming up, it's coming up to you. Or if anything, it sometimes stays like knee level or below. So it's not really a great vantage. point from just where your eyes are like is different than tennis or you know other other sports like baseball or the puck or the ball is coming you know from your from above you and coming down

it's very different and they you know most athletes will tell you that they think hitting a baseball is the like a major league baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports so when you start talking about hockey and you say well you got the puck where it's coming from how hard it's coming, the traffic and everything else that goes into it, I would say that that is an incredibly difficult thing to do. The dynamics that surround it is the players who do it best. So we talked about Valardi. I think the one, you can't really have a conversation about tipping unless you're going to

unless you're going to talk about Pavelski. And then now Crosby also, there's, there's an. element that these guys have as it relates to timing when they're going to get into the shot lane. And so the best guys now, they don't get in this. Like the old school, you would get in the eyes of the goalie, get the shot lane, and you would hold the shot lane. And then the guy would shoot and then you'd hope it doesn't hit you. And then at the same time, try to find a way to get your stick on it. That's not really what goes on.

Now, if you watch Crosby, Povellski, these types of players, they anticipate when the shot's going to occur. And then they arrive either as the puck is being shot or just before they'll get there and establish a position. And then they have their stick free. And also, it's not just getting the eyes of the goalie. it's the depth at which you're also there. So it's a whole situation of like, how far are you from the net when you're doing it? So because the puck needs to travel a little bit.

That's why Crosby's like knife in, one that he does where he'll come around the net or come to the side of the net. The guy, the guy shooting from the point is now shooting just slightly off the net. And Crosby will like knife it, into the net, which essentially expands the net. The ability and understanding of how to expand the net is phenomenal.

So, you know, it's so difficult to score, and you have a guy now who's making the net and the surface of what you need to defend as a shot blocker and a goalie, even so much more, like so much bigger, it's incredibly difficult. And when you see Crosby, when he does it, a lot of times he's arriving into the net area.

He'll come, be slicing through at the perfect time and then get his stick on it. Or he arrives coming from a place where no one would expect that he's coming from and then he all of a sudden arrives and then sure enough, the puck arrives there. I think that that's more of where the modern day, tipping is coming from.

You could make a good argument about like one of the better ways to think about it from what I'm talking about here is is like the high tip, what we would talk about as a high tip. Defenseman shoots it and the guy is getting a stick on it like the hash marks, but he was skating through that area and then gets his stick on it at that point. It's those timing elements that I think are much more what we're talking about, especially with Crosby, who tips. a lot of pucks that the puck is on the ice.

The puck is along the ice and he's redirecting it from there. Pavelski is much more of a tipper where the puck is in the air. It's like he likes it a little bit further up. It's a little bit more baseball or tennis type of way approach to it. But still a lot of timing is required to get involved in that. And it's it's timing. It's repetitions. It's understanding how the puck, how shots work.

and how the net is and where the goal he's going to be and all that. You'll see Crosby one of his best parts of what I love about his tip approach is he'll often tip it to rebound off the goalie in a more predictable way so he can then just tap the rebounding. Like the level of advanced thinking on the tip is at a whole other level because he's not even thinking about necessarily redirecting it to score. sometimes he's redirecting it to just get it to go off the goalie in a certain way that gives him a chance on the other side to put it in that thing.

That's the level that we're talking about. How much control is involved in it? Because obviously it takes an immense amount of hand-eye coordination and the timing you mentioned there just to routinely be able to actually make contact with it and do something with it. But it's just a matter of like you're just trying to essentially change the level for the goalie, right where like if you're the goalie you're tracking the initial shot off of the stick and so you're preparing to make a safe selection of one sort and then all of a sudden puck's coming at you in an

entirely different unpredictable angle that's obviously what you're trying to accomplish but as the tipper i guess it would depend on the situation right a pavalski from midair where you're just trying to knock it down and get it through the legs as opposed to crosbie trying to elevate it off a puck that's on the ice they're sort of different but how much control or sort of purpose is there involved than that compared to just trying to change the initial shot. Well, when we're teaching or influencing tipping and talk about it at this level, one of the things that the terms that I use is shaping. A lot of times you're trying to shape the tip.

And you'll see the way in which they use the blade is a shape. Like you're changing the direct, not only the direction, but it's it's the angle at which the puck. So it's not just the puck gets shot in and you knock it down and it goes straight like on the same line. It goes straight down, hits the ice, bounces and goes in. Yes, there's an element to that that happens. A lot of these are like the shot is like slightly off net.

And the guy is tipping it, but he tips it in a way where he's pulling the tip back to the net on an angle on a new diagonal. Because you're trying to change these angles and diagonals because you're trying to impact how to expand the net or the surface area that the goalie is actually trying to defend. You're expanding that area because it's so hard to so hard to score. So that's where strong stick redirections, the shape in which you use the actual blade to get the puck up in the end. air when you're looking to redirect these things. In a case like Pavelski, just how he used,

Pavelsky uses the shaft of his stick so much as part of the tipping. And there's a whole, the angle at which, where his hands are, are above the level of the puck. So now his stick is on an angle. So when the puck hits, it now shaped back towards the net.

Like there's a ton of that type of stuff. But I think, the best way that I've learned to describe it is you're shaping the tip and having it be influenced all this way. So it's not just enough to get your stick on it. You have to try to do something with it. We've done these things where we'll shoot it for the player to redirect. We shoot it off net. So now the player has to tip it to come back to the net. And then as they're tipping it to come back to the net, they're turning because they realize that as it comes on that angle, if it hits the goalie, well, then it's going to land on this side of the net.

So I've tipped it to create my own rebound that's much more predictable for where I want to have it. All of those elements are the things that we're talking about as it relates to the difficulty that comes from shaping a tip. Yeah, what Crosby's so good at is despite all the attention being directed as way, as you see in these clips, he like loops his way around the net, right, comes on the back post and allows himself to be unmarked and then awaits those sort of that that off net shot that you're talking about.

And I think part of it is rep, certainly part of it is also a relationship with the shooter, right, kind of being on the same wavelength and kind of knowing where that puck's going to be and to look for it. And that's why it's been really interesting to watch his connection with Carlson develop this season. I also, you mentioned like knifing it. almost think of it as kind of like wedging the puck right i think chris crider does it remarkably well i think miko ranted in does it really well and you see those guys off and like they like tighten up on the stick

and sometimes go down to one knee to try to like get better control of it and really try to corral it and it's really fun because it has become an art form um let's talk a little bit about his connection with carlson and i wanted to mention that because in preparation for the show i was watching all the clips right to get our roll decks ready here. And it's been really interesting to see those two guys develop as the years gone along. And, you know, for all the negative things that have happened in Pittsburgh with their team's performance and everything, I was just watching it and kind of taking a step back and realizing how cool it is to see these guys still performing at this level,

getting to interact together, as you see on that goal against Columbus. And it's really fun because you can almost sort of see Crosby's appreciation for it. Carlson being able to find him the way he has as the year has gone along and you see like after it works like he's just smiling just so happy about getting to to work off of that and I think that's a big part of this as well right like it's one thing to just kind of stand there and be like all right well the puck's going to come here I'm going to try to tip it but I think what gets lost in that is the person actually shooting it and the fact that that's also a skill in it's of its own and we talked about that a little bit when we did our Quinn Hughes show earlier the season well you mentioned

answer this question or dig into this, I think that I go back to when I did the Bios Steel camp where they were having, you know, Crosby and McDavid were playing together for a large part of that week, well, the entire week and just watching them in the games that we were doing and just seeing like what is it, what is it exactly that they're doing? and what I was able to deduct from what watching it for the entire week was they just know intuitively between the two of them where the best play is going to be next. And so there would be a lot of plays that would happen that didn't really manifest itself until it happened. So it wasn't like someone's like wide open before like well in advance of the play.

and then like Crosby would see oh, McDavid's open and pass him the puck. These would be situations where it didn't look like anything was really all that threatening. And then all of a sudden, like Crosby would put a puck in an area. And McDavid already knew that that was going to be the area. And he had moved in advance. But it was almost like unbeknownst to anybody else. No one really knew except for Crosby and McDavid where the, that space, where that threat was.

And by the time you realized you were in trouble, the puck was already in the net. I think with what I've watched, because I've watched a ton of Pittsburgh this year as well, and what I've noticed with Crosby and his relationship with Carlson as it's grown, is you're seeing a lot of those things where between the two of them, they are on a wavelength in which each one of them knows. where the most threatening play will be. And so if it's a situation where Carlson's at the point and Crosby's behind the net,

as Crosby's coming around the net, Carlson is reading, okay, he's coming behind the net, so let's shoot it off net because he's going to know that that's the case. And they don't even need, it's not a situation where they need eye contact. They just read the situation. each one of them is familiar with where the most threatening place is and they just are able to execute that. And it wasn't until I had really saw that firsthand

with the McDavid and Crosby thing, because it was so like in your face. Like we had, there was some of the, like many of the top 20 of the best players in the world there. But when you watch these two in particular, it was just another level of thinking and the way in which they would play. And what you see with the Carlson situation is Crosby now has another guy

who can start to be able to intuitively see where he thinks the next best play is and deliver the puck there, where maybe he wouldn't have had that as much. I mean, LaTang has been a good example of that where the two of them have done well over the years. but like that's just another guy now who can think on that wavelength and be able to see a play in advance and be able to deliver the puck when you need it. I mean, is there anything better to really than watch something like that? It's so when you see it, it jumps right out at you. It's amazing.

Yeah, it's a bit of a shared brain. Yeah, the reason why I want to mention Carlson was I've just seen a lot of talk about his performance this season and sort of the blame game goes around, run a team underperforms like this. And I just, in watching this tape, I mean, I think he's been dynamite. he was always going to disappoint if you viewed it through the lens of 100 to 1 points last year and trying to kind of match that because a lot of things happened. They were sort of out of his control to lead to that. But, man, he's been quite unlucky because he's been setting up the same number of grade A chances.

The Pucks just haven't been going in enough. I think I counted like he could have had at least 15 or 20 more assists this season if he had just been a bit more fortunate. But the other reason why I bring this up is, you know, the topic of sort of Jake Gensel and over the years, I heard a lot about, um, what it's like to play with a player like Crosby and whether it's easy because he just sets up so many grade A looks that if you play with him and you share the ice with them, as long as you're in the right areas, you're going to score a lot, and that's pretty good and pretty fun to play with,

as opposed to we've heard how it can be kind of trickier or difficult, right? And I think that's what you're what you're hinting at there. It makes me think back to our conversation about Nicola Eilers a few weeks ago in terms of the frustration that can happen for a player when you're doing the right things. and then you feel like your teammates aren't in the right areas. In this case for Crosby, I imagine part of the difficulty for finding players that can think at such a high level with him

is he almost ahead of time sees where you should be and what the best play is, right? And if you can't get there or you don't see that with him, then it's not going to work. And it's almost like for that player, there's a bit of blissful ignorance because you never even knew that was a possibility. whereas for him, he knows that that was an option that you sort of left on the table.

And that must be very frustrating. I think that's why he can be kind of a demanding player, I guess, to play with or a particular player because you actually need to do certain things to get the most out of what he wants you to do. Yeah. You know, like years ago, I did a study on Crosby and Cunitz. and there was what what jumped out at that study was plays made from one to the other versus so from crosbie to Kunitz versus how many plays were made from Kunitz to Crosby. And it was a disproportionate number.

Like I'm talking over 80% going from Crosby to Cunitz versus coming back the other way. Kunitz's ability to play with Crosby was his ability to read where he might need him to go and go in those spots and they developed a chemistry that was in my mind largely like heavy one way it was heavy the plays going from crosbie to kunitz and kunitz became really effective at being able to find these plays and repeated them and they they developed that that chemistry that's the difficulty when playing with a guy like crosbie because first you got to know where those plays are. But what's difficult is being able to find the plays for him as well.

So are you really playing with him? Or is he finding a way to use you and your abilities? And I think that Crosby is one of those players who has a chameleon-like effect in the way in which he can apply his game and utilize your strengths. And that's why some superstars struggle sometimes where they're not able to find that chemistry or they're frustrating to play with because they want the puck too.

And they want you to be able to see these plays that you want to create. But really the onus is on you to find a way to use the other guys. And that's where it becomes really fascinating. And so player like Gensel, I haven't done a study on Gensel and Crosby to see if there's the same kind of idea between Crosby and Cozby from years ago. But I would imagine it is similar. The onus is on Crosby to find a way to chameleon his game and tailor his game to be able to highlight and accent the assets of the other players. versus it coming back around to you, to you.

And that's why when you put a players like a Crosby and McDavid together, well now you see this symbiotic nature of them being able to work, each one of them is reading off of each other. Or you see that situation we were just talking about with Carlson. Carlson is at that level where he can find plays now for Crosby, which makes it so much more interesting and so much more fascinating. But there is that that occurs in these other situations that makes it harder for a guy like Crosby.

And it's not really that it's not easy to play with him in the sense of making plays for him. because he sees it so he's looking to make plays for you, but there should be a symbiotic relationship where you're also trying to find plays for him. It's harder because he's at another level of thinking. So what you thought was a really advanced play, he's already three plays past that. That's the really fascinating part about dealing with a player

who is not only as talented as Crosby, but the way his mind thinks and how, well researched he is and how well he knows the league and how well he knows players. Like this guy is like he's a computer and you're dealing with that. It's very difficult. Well, what's remarkable about tying that together, but what he's doing this season is you mentioned the 31 goals or whatever he scored so far. And so Crosby's getting his own production that regard.

But also Gensel is, I believe, first and expected goals himself, fourth and inner slot shots. And a lot of that is because Crosby is literally in the 100,000. percentile of all players in shot and chance assists and setting him up and getting him the puck in those areas, right? So he's kind of doing it on both ends. And I think that's what makes it frustrating to watch this team's power play. I wanted to get into that a little bit with you because they're, I believe, 29th or 30th in the league this year. And it's been a big topic of discussion, how you can have the personnel they have and have the lack of results. And in watching this, I'm not sure how much of it comes down to the players and how much of it comes down to coaching.

because for me, it's just, it's baffling to watch you have a player of Crosby's capabilities in terms of all the netfront stuff we just mentioned with his touch and how good he is down low. And then to watch them use him on the flank or sometimes even at the top of the umbrella kind of navigating from there. It might just be deferring to him and him wanting to sort of control the sequence and have the puck more because obviously you're going to have more opportunities to play with it up there as opposed to down low. but man it's kind of frustrating to watch his skill i guess not be used to its full capability up there as opposed to just kind of using him as that tradition or as that modern net front guy that we just described yeah this like the power play like is so difficult to get your handle get a handle on in pittsburgh because like you say they have so much raw talent to apply to the power play i think sometimes hand

is also a factor at different times of how the puck comes in and where the guys are. My 10-cent view of the Pittsburgh power play is that it's difficult to get all five guys moving on a power play. I mean, you saw it in Edmonton, but that took a couple years to get to. That wasn't, they didn't just wake up one day and all of a sudden they got to that where they had that kind of movement. So oftentimes a power play has to start with a certain set. So whether it's this, you know, the one three one or overload or whatever it is that you choose to have as your set structure. And then you might have a little bit of movement with one or two guys, but you usually have like three guys staying in their spots.

And then you have maybe two guys that are moving. To the degree that you have more than two people moving is the degree. in which there's more uncertainty in terms of timing. And so you're not just moving five on O. It's five versus four. There's sticks. The penalty kill is trying to do certain things to try to limit your opportunities. There's different reads.

And the timing just has to get synced. So early on in the year, when I looked at the Pitchburg Power Play, the thing that jumped out at me was they had so much movement. so many guys just moving and inter-changing positions, et cetera, that it just became difficult to get the timing down to be able to generate the quality chance. So now you have five guys who have so much talent and you almost need to be like, listen, nobody move.

Just stay in your spots and let's get a power play that works within side of those spots. And then you can gradually, once that starts to, that base starts, then you can start to kind of open it up. That to me was the problems early on in that power play. It's once you start getting so much movement, then you really, you get caught almost playing one versus four because the other guys just aren't in a good spot to be in a position

to be able to make the next play. And whether Crosby should be on the flank, whether he should be at the net front, whether he should be, you know, a man in the middle, I think he should be all those places. I think he should be rotating it to all those spots. The best power play seemed to find a way to get guys to be into different spots. The trouble with it is if you have so much movement early on,

it can be really wreak havoc on the timing. And now you're not shooting off the pass as well, which is a big hallmark of good power plays as they shoot off the pass well. And then they have these little timing pieces that oftentimes takes years to get to a point where it can become effective. Okay, we got to speed through this because I haven't gotten into like a third of my topics here. But no, this is, I mean, this is phenomenal. This is why we get together. But this has been more sort of philosophical, I guess, as opposed to actually getting into his.

is into those kills. We'll do that at the end here. Let's talk a little bit about a shot then. Because I think obviously the backhand and you can tie in the passing here as well gets a lot of the play and deservedly. So I mean the velocity he's able to generate on that. It feels like it's higher than a lot of regular wrist shots for a lot of players in the NHL.

It's remarkable what he's able to generate there. But in watching this season, I think two things that have stuck out to me are one, his sort of like quick shot that he's really been incorporating a lot, particularly off the rush, right? It seems like he really tries to throw the timing off for the goalie in particular, in terms of what we talked about, McDavid, sort of shooting low at times and trying to catch the goalie on his way down. And then the other is that almost, I don't know how to describe it, it's almost like a fadeaway jump shot that he does the hockey version where he's sort of drifting to get into position and then he's going down on one knee and he's one timing it off of that. I mean, both of those really are cool to watch and something that he's utilized to great

effect this season. Yeah, Crosby's shot always has been, it's so fascinating because his stick is not a stick that many players can use. He uses a relatively short stick. It's not, it doesn't have a lot of flex in it. And then he has a much more straighter stick than you would expect from a superstar offense. a player most of the time. Those guys have some kind of a custom type curve that accentuates their shooting capacity.

Crosby has kept a much more neutral type curve because he values the backhand and his use of the backhand. And so I think Crosby's stick is certainly not a stick that you would choose off the rack for someone to say, hey, this is your best stick to shoot with. his stick is used for every other benefit other than shooting so he's incredibly strong and uh obviously his ability to use his body are inside of his shot which is what you've talked about is ability to surround the puck he gets down on it on one knee uh a lot he has a great ability also to move inside of whether it's weight transfer or coming

where he surrounds the puck in pivots and things like that. Like he does a lot with his feet to shoot because his stick doesn't really give him a tremendous amount of advantages. His quick shot that you talked about off the rush I think is interesting because he presents pass and he kind of hides the shot inside the past. pass. And then he does such a great job of kind of holding it.

And then at the last second, then he releases it. And it's almost like he's just using his wrist to get the puck to pop off the stick over the first 10 feet, make it difficult for the goalie to pick up. But he's not a high velocity shooter. Like he's not bombing this puck, you know, at a high velocity. He's deadly accurate is one of his advantages. and the release speed is so quick. And he does such a great job of using his body to surround the puck

and use his feet to be able to create some leverages that he would need, given kind of his stick doesn't really give him like quick release feel. It's not like, you know, not like a lot of other player stick where it's literally a tennis racket that they're using on the ice with that kind of response in the blade, that that's not what he's using. I mean, it's so in many different areas. I'm glad to use that specific word because I had it down here in my notes.

Does anyone sort of like understand the concept of and then utilize leverage better than he does in like in every single way, right? And you see it with a shot as well where you really can't throw him a bad pass. I mean, we've sort of seen him famously like on the move, you know, corraling pucks in his skates and kicking it to a stick and then still making a play without slowing down. But you even see on the passes like he's not a player that's necessarily. getting down on one knee for style points because it's cool, although I appreciate that he does it. It's very functional. Everything in his game is by design and very functional. He does that, as you mentioned, kind of like surround the puck and get himself in a position to get as much on it as he can because otherwise, I imagine he would score much less than he does right now.

Everything that he does has been well thought out to the endth degree. He's a fact, factored in every pro and con, what he's giving up, what he's gaining. And then whatever he's losing, he finds a way to make it up in some way by leveraging his tremendous strength. He is such a strong athlete. Like, it's one thing, like, I don't think he gets credit enough for how, like, people talk about how strong he is and how his wide base of support. and he's impossible to knock off his skates and knock off the puck. But he's tremendously athletic in his movements as well. He has a certain degree of agility and his upper body control in relationship to his lower body

is some of the best in the league. And I don't think he gets enough credit for that. I think because he's so strong, he gets too much credit for how strong. strong he is, even though I don't know that you can give him too much credit because he is so strong. But it takes away from the athletic parts of how smooth he is, how athletic he is, how the fine motor skills that he has. He has tremendous ability to use his upper body, separate from his lower body. He has, like I said, a short stick where he can use a bring the puck close to his feet, draw it out on the other side, get into that backhand very. quickly.

He just is so stable. And usually players who are, and this is why I think Crosby is so interesting to study, players who have a high degree of stability in the way in which they are, stability usually takes away from agility because you're trying to be stable. You're trying to get your body weight perfectly centered over top of your skates. but that is precluding to agility. Agility is being on one foot or the other and just having this real depth of movement. And he has this ability to be able to do both,

which is what I think is what really brings out that high level of skill that is a little bit baffling and why people talk about him being, you know, that high, highly skilled checker. It's true. he has that stability, he has that strength, he has that dog in him where he goes against pucks and he's so strong. But then you see all these like really fine movements where all of a sudden you'll pivot. He'll spin.

He'll pull the puck from one side to the other. He'll get the puck in and out of his feet so quickly. He does all these things that you just don't expect a guy who has so much stability in his game and so much strength to have. yeah i yeah i think people generally appreciate how strong he is right and you see it like on the back end or you're seeing the possession clips but until uh you've been put it personally in the torture chamber and and and try to actually knock the knock him off the puck you probably can't actually fully grab it it's it's remarkable anything on his passing and kind of that area right because part of it is just like you can almost just sit back and watch it and and and and we i just

mentioned the stats about like him getting the puck to gensel and how prolific they've been in that regard and we've all seen the beautiful backhand passing and his ability to just kind of through 4D chess like figure out where he needs to get the puck to you and it's almost sometimes like the player receiving the puck is surprised by it because they didn't even think that he was going to happen and then all of a sudden the puck's on their stick and they have a chance to score but is there anything that sticks out to you and watching him as a passer and kind of how he operates that way and why he's able to be just so ruthless in that capacity? I think one of the best aspects of Crosby's game in terms of his passing is his ability

to lead people into passes. He does a lot of passing between two checks. He does a lot of that. He's very patient in his ability to be on top of the puck. And because he's so strong and he knows that you're not going to be able to knock him off the puck, very similar to our discussion about dry sidle, where he's just so patient, he can keep carry people on his back. And then because he's able to be patient, all of a sudden these passing lanes

open up that wouldn't have had he not been able to be as patient or if hadn't been as strong, he wouldn't be able to extend the possession to be able to allow this play to breathe. Crosby has that exact same ability. He can allow a play to breathe to be able to access plays on the back end of that play that weren't available and wouldn't be available to a lesser player. And a lot of his passes, I find are high-level passes that come from him being able to be patient and leveraging his patience to be able to find plays that are later on.

And all of a sudden, it's a pass between two checks perfectly on time to a guy because he never had to rush the pass. And I think that that's a major part of anybody who is really good passer is that they don't have to rush it. Well, something, I mean, speaking of the, you mentioned the passing into space, and I think that's sort of almost best encapsulated by the usage of the boards. Like I feel like on a lot of these breakouts in particular, right? Like he's utilizing the geometry and the perks of just the general shape of a rink to its full capacity. And you sort of see that in his ability to kind of just pass it off the boards and lead a

player like a Brian Rust or Jake Gensel to skate into it. And so that's part of this as well. Yeah, I mean, you can beat you in so many number of ways. And with the passing, I want her to include it because we've got all these clips about it, but I almost, it's so beautiful that I don't even really know how to sort of put it into words as neatly as you did. So I'm glad you tried to capture that at least a little bit. Well, you also cannot talk about his passing without talking about his backhand.

He makes probably, I don't know what the numbers would be, but I would imagine the number of backhand passes he makes would be extremely he would be among the league leaders i think in backhand passes yeah no it's it's it's beautiful to watch all right darrell um i think that's about it that i've got on crosbie we actually got into most of the stuff i wanted to talk about do you have any other sort of parting shots here things that you think are worth mentioning um about his game before we had out here i just uh the the one thing that really stands out for me about him is he has this ability to be able to elevate people around him while at the same time not taking too much away from his own game and that to me is a mark of a of a true

like superstar and you hear all the players in the league talk about we just had a I think there was a whole thing about like Marshawn was talking about him and saying that he thought he was the best player in the league. These references about him being the best player in the league, I think come from all these details. And he excels at the details. And he's like, as much as us layman's watching him and we understand a little bit of it because we watch it, but don't really understand all of it. the players, the really top-end players, they have such an appreciation for his game and what he does in the details. And they aspire to add those details to his game. I think that speaks so highly about Crosby, maybe more than anything.

Yeah. No, that's really well said. Definitely. Everything that goes into it and just the difficulty, the degree of difficulty of what he's pulling off. And I think sometimes it can desensitize us to it, not only because we've seen it for so many years now, but how easy and casual he can make it look at times, right? And then actually trying to put yourself in your shoes and trying to replicate it is an entirely different deal.

All right, Darrell, let's get out of here. We'll be back next week with you, and we'll pick another player to DeepDive. Thank you to everyone for listening to us. Hopefully you're watching along with us on YouTube. If not, check out the HockeyPedio cast on the YouTube channel. You can watch the clips along with us, along with all the mixtapes I put out about the players,

Darrell and I deep dive each week. And we'll be back next week with plenty more of the Hockey PDO guests. Have a great weekend and looking forward to that with more of the Hockey Pio guests on the Sports Night Radio Network.