Crosby cleared for the runway, but not for takeoff (yet)

Sidney Crosby has been cleared for contact.  He'll be practicing with the team this week and will not return any earlier than Sunday against Boston.

There were a few pieces of information that I thought were interesting buried in the article:

• Sid took a shot in the neck to reduce the inflammation in his C1 and C2 joints in the neck.  It seems to have produced some results.
• He has been symptom-free for "a few days".
• Last time he was cleared, it took six weeks before he came and played in a game.  Hopefully this time won't be as long.

Penguins taking proper approach with Crosby

The latest news in Sidney Crosby Land, as most hockey fans are aware by now, is that Sid has / had a neck injury that is / was complicating his return to the ice.

Sid got the news after visiting with Dr. Robert Bray, a neurological spine specialist.

Per the statement released by the Penguins, the injury is fully healed.  That diagnosis will be confirmed over the next day or two.

I like the way both the Crosby camp and the Penguins are approaching this.  Both Sid and the Pens are providing as much information as they can.  This feels like a departure from earlier this season, when it was difficult to get any information as to Crosby's status, including whether he was skating and / or working out.

Ray Shero is on the record as saying he's optimistic that Sid will play again this season.

Somehow it feels like we may have turned a corner, and that a missing piece just fell into place.  I'm saying that based on nothing more than reading the same things that everyone else is.

I'd love to see this team with everyone fully healed.

Sidney Crosby - A Look at the Numbers in Game 1

Sid put on a show against the Islanders.  Let's look at the numbers a bit closer:

The obvious ones were the two goals and two assists.  One assist was on the power play (it was a secondary assist).

Here are the other numbers:

8 shots on goal

+3 plus / minus rating

1 missed shot

1 blocked shot

1 hit

21 shifts

14-7 on faceoffs

A few things stand out here:

• 8 shots led the team, and more importantly, he got almost all of them on net, missing just once.  That's something the team has been missing with some of their big guns.
• Faceoffs - 14-7 is a record on the draws.  Sid had vastly improved that aspect of his game before he was hurt.  It looks like he hasn't lost that so far.
• It isn't a statistic, but he looked like he was flying on the ice.  It will be interesting to see how he's able to maintain that level of effort and intensity going forward.

In short, Sid has set the bar pretty high.  He'll have some games where the performance isn't up to the usual standards, and I'm sure some teams will try to get physical with him.  For tonight, however, we can all sit back and breathe a bit sigh of relief and enjoy the victory.

Game #21 - vs New York Islanders (SID IS BACK!!)

2011-12 Game 21

New York Islanders (5-9-3, 13 points) at Pittsburgh Penguins (11-6-3, 25 points)

Sid's rookie card (2005-06 Upper Deck) will set you back about $230 - $250.   Expect that to go up.

Why does it matter?

It's the return of Sidney Crosby to the lineup, almost eleven months after he last stepped on the ice.

What has been happening lately?

• Pens - Since sweeping the Isles in a home-and-home around Halloween, the Pens are just 3-4-1.  Sid picked exactly the right time to return - they need a jolt.
• Islanders - The Isles have been pretty bad.  After starting the season 3-1, they're just 2-8-3.  They can't score enough to win.

Questions to be answered

• How much will Sid play?  If he really only plays 12 minutes, as has been suggested, what does that do to the line juggling of HCDB?
• What is wrong with the penalty kill?  They've allowed multiple goals in back-to-back games.
• Will Geno continue his strong play, or will he slip back into the shadows as he has done sometimes while playing with Sid?

Keys to the game

• Celebrate.  This is the first time since last January that Sid, Geno and Staal will play in the same game.
• Remember to breathe.  The first time Sid gets plastered, the viewing public (and the team) will likely be holding their breath until he gets up.
• Score three goals.  The Pens have not won a game this year when they've scored fewer than three goals.  When they do, their record is 11-2-1.

Sidney Crosby - Cleared for Contact

Everyone on the planet will soon know... Sid has been cleared for contact in practice.

He'll stay this was in practice and see how it goes.  The Pens don't have too many practices with contact because of their schedule, but this could be a blessing in disguise, as it will allow Sid to ease into things.

It will be great to see him back on the ice in game action, and this is a big step in getting him here.

Sidney Crosby and Faceoffs: Part 3

So for the last part, I thought I'd take a look at which players Sid had the most success against (or lack thereof).

With the linesman, we couldn't be certain who had dropped the puck, so we couldn't say for sure what the actual success rate was. With the players, it's obviously very specific and certain.

These numbers speak for themselves. I'm not showing anyone he faced less than 10 times, because I think the sample size is too small. That leaves us with 58 players Sid faces 10 times or more in 2009-2010.

Here are the top 10 guys that Sid dominated in the faceoff circle:

Player	Wins	Losses	Total	Win %
23 DRURY	29	7	36	80.56%
17 CARTER	16	4	20	80.00%
19 CONNOLLY	12	4	16	75.00%
26 CHRISTENSEN	8	3	11	72.73%
19 THORNTON	8	3	11	72.73%
91 STAMKOS	13	5	18	72.22%
27 REINPRECHT	14	6	20	70.00%
47 PEVERLEY	14	6	20	70.00%
9 WEISS	23	10	33	69.70%
11 BETTS	18	8	26	69.23%

Poor Chris Drury - he really had a hard time against Sid this season. Jeff Carter isn't far behind (just for reference, Sid was 33-21 against Mike Richards too).

And on the other end of the spectrum:

Player	Wins	Losses	Total	Win %
9 MORRISON	3	9	12	25.00%
42 ANISIMOV	5	12	17	29.41%
28 GAUSTAD	8	18	26	30.77%
91 GOMEZ	5	10	15	33.33%
37 BERGERON	17	28	45	37.78%
50 VERMETTE	4	6	10	40.00%
46 KREJCI	7	10	17	41.18%
14 PLEKANEC	12	17	29	41.38%
23 SLATER	5	7	12	41.67%
9 ROY	5	7	12	41.67%

Gaustad, Bergeron and Plekanec were easily his toughest challenges all year, because he faced them with regularity and wasn't terribly good against them. I don't have time to do it now, but it would be interesting to know if he struggles against right-handed players more than left...

Sidney Crosby and Faceoffs: Part 2

This part will take a look at how Sid fared with games worked by specific linesman.

I always wondered if the way the linesman drops the puck has anything to do with who wins the faceoff. Maybe there was a pattern that some guys could pick up on and use to their advantage. Maybe some linesman allow some guys to cheat more and gain an advantage.

Despite the fact that we're talking about a very small percentage difference between average (50%) and very good (Sid won about 56%), the sheer volume of draws makes any small advantage significant. Sid took almost 1800 draws. The difference of a percentage point would be 18 more wins, so for Sid, he won 108 draws more than average. Since the Pens play a puck possession style, that number is significant.

So, in looking at the linesman, there is no way to identify who is dropping the puck. There are two linesman working each game and the data doesn't specific who drops each puck.

What we can do, however, is to "associate" the linesman with the faceoffs, so that in games worked by Marc Pare, we know that Sid has a specific success rate (53.7%).

Here are the top 10 linesmen Sid was most successful against:

Linesman	Total #	Win %
#97 Jean Morin	107	66.36%
#70 Derek Nansen	70	62.86%
#47 Dan Schachte	53	62.26%
#68 Scott Driscoll	93	61.29%
#59 Steve Barton	85	61.18%
#75 Derek Amell	231	58.87%
#50 Scott Cherrey	89	58.43%
#57 Jay Sharrers	86	58.14%
#66 Darren Gibbs	43	58.14%
#96 David Brisebois	156	57.69%

If any of these guys are announced as the linesman for a game, Sid is likely to have a good night.

On the flip side, here are the guys he has the least success against:

Linesman	Total #	Win %
#73 Vaughan Rody	62	46.77%
#88 Mike Cvik	49	48.98%
#55 Shane Heyer	42	50.00%
#54 Greg Devorski	159	50.31%
#90 Andy McElman	129	50.39%
#77 Tim Nowak	68	51.47%
#65 Pierre Racicot	33	51.52%
#92 Mark Shewchyk	64	51.56%
#61 Lyle Seitz	44	52.27%
#86 Brad Lazarowich	17	52.94%

You only really need to worry about linesman he faced more than 100 times on this list. I'd say the other numbers are insignificant due to small data size.

The last piece of information I tried to get is how many times Sid was kicked out of the faceoff. This data is not recorded anywhere, but I looked at any faceoff where Sid was on the ice but did not take the draw. I think in those situations, it is normally safe to assume that he had been kicked out of the draw.

According to that methodology, Sid was kicked out 63 times during the 2009-2010 season. Here are the top 5 guys that kicked him out of the draw:

Linesman	Faceoffs	Waved Out%	Win %
#66 Darren Gibbs	43	8.51%	58.14%
#57 Jay Sharrers	86	7.53%	58.14%
#79 Mark Pare	149	7.45%	53.69%
#71 Brad Kovachik	148	6.92%	56.76%
#78 Brian Mach	179	6.77%	57.54%

You can see it didn't appear to have any impact on the win % as Sid was above his season average on all but one of those guys.

On the other end of things, Sid was waved out a grand total of once all year against these five guys (though the volume is low)

Linesman	Faceoffs	Waved Out%	Win %
#47 Dan Schachte	53	0.00%	62.26%
#68 Scott Driscoll	93	0.00%	61.29%
#61 Lyle Seitz	44	0.00%	52.27%
#65 Pierre Racicot	33	0.00%	51.52%
#96 David Brisebois	156	0.64%	57.69%

I think the Driscoll number is significant. Sid is well above average against him with a decent number of faceoffs.

Sidney Crosby and Faceoffs: Part 1

Another look at numbers for a Friday in the middle of a lazy summer. This time, we're going to check out some of the specifics about Sid and the faceoff circle.

Everyone that watched even a few of the Pens' games this year knows that Sid improved greatly in the faceoff circle, mostly from Errey and Steigy telling you that every game. Here are a few facts:

• He took 88 more faceoffs than anyone in the league with 1791 (Paul Stasny was second).
• He won 55.9% of his faceoffs, putting him 7th among players who took more than 1000 draws (a pool of 57 players).
• He was amazingly consistent in all of the different scenarios (road, home, power play, penalty kill, even strength).

So I decided to take a deeper look at the numbers. The next two posts (both scheduled for this morning) will look at how Sid fared against specific players in the faceoff circle, as well as how he fared with specific linesman dropping the puck.