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.