Something strange is going on here...

Something strange is going on here as Sidney Crosby has been having a very slow start to this season. In this video, we're gonna break down everything about Sidney Crosby and his slow start that dates back even to last season. We're gonna talk about Erik Carlsson and how great he's been playing, and so much more. So, not want to miss this episode of Penguins Digest. Before diving into everything here, just want to say we're on the road for 3,000 subscribers here on the channel. So, if you're new here, you want to stay up to date on the latest news around the Pittsburgh Penguins, we're your home for it here on YouTube Scumbleo. Hit that subscribe button; it's completely free to do so. But with that said, we're gonna dive into everything here, Sidney Crosby today. As so far this season, we haven't seen Sidney Crosby score a goal, and I think it's kind of been a little bit of a slow start than what we anticipated from our star, from the club legend Sidney Crosby. And hopefully, we can see him get the form, get back the form soon. But let's just dive into the numbers because they don't look great right now. And I know with Sidney Crosby, and I know he will bounce back into this season. But you know, there are some reports saying that maybe this is the decline of Sidney Crosby. I'm not one of those saying that, but you know, we're reporting it here on the channel today as we see Sidney Crosby searches for his first goal of the season, still as yet to score a goal this year. But we see here the drought even dates back in his past twenty eight games. He's only scored three goals of his seventy three last shots on goal. Only three have found the back net. Is this merely a slump, an unlucky string of games, or is there something bigger to worry about here? I think you know. I don't really think there is something bigger to concern here. I think Sidney Crosby is still a great player. I think he'll just find you know get back to you know how to score goals, and you know obviously we know how great of a player he is. We know how you know dynamic Sidney Crosby is in terms of his passing, his playmaking, his goal scoring, just how great of a leader Sidney Crosby is. And yes, I know he is what thirty nine years old now, and yeah, he's getting up there. But I don't think we will see a season where Sidney Crosby struggles in his career. I just think right now, the beginning of this season, you know, he's he's just you know having a tough start, right? And every player has a tough start. Once he finds the back the net and he gets that you know off of his shoulders, he'll be able to go forward and you know just keep that goal scoring rate up and just be on fire for this team because right now the team, you know, the middle six is kind of picking up for the veterans because they've all kind of been slumping, and especially Sidney Crosby. You just look like he has two assists, which is great. You know, he has two assists after five games now, and he's been playing you know solid. You know, he's Sidney Crosby's winning the faceoffs, fifty five percent on the faceoff dot. He's doing great things defensively. We just need him to find the back the net because we need this team to get back to the playoffs, and to do that, we need Sidney Crosby to have a stellar season. So hopefully, we can see him get back, and as we see here, just his goals in all six games. None. Right, he's nothing here. Uh, nothing. He's jumping off the page and just looking at his chances versus goals. He's had, you know, expected so far this season. We're expecting to have two goals, right? And but right now we have zero. His shooting percentage should be at fourteen percent. It's at zero. So we need to see Sidney Crosby get back into into form here. Get back into his goalscoring ways because we desperately need it here in Pittsburgh. If we are going to win games to get us to the playoffs this season, just looking at his shot chart, yeah, he has been around it. You know, he's had some chances down low. You see that yellow little yellow box down there. That means he's had some great chances down there, but hasn't really had one finding the back the net yet. One of these is eventually going to go in, and Sidney Crosby will get back to form. I I believe it. I have to believe it because I really want us to get back into the playoffs this year, and it all kind of rests on Sidney Crosby because Sidney Crosby needs better line support, and I think that's the big thing right now. We just kind of see his line options at this point. I was very very stumped when Dan used took Robertson off his line because I really liked him with Robertson. Look, you see the goals for against goals against are way better with Rikelle and Robertson, and you see here it's one goal, two goals against when it's Rikelle and Rusty. I know Rusty was on his line most of last year, but Nick Robertson has been a great great threat on his line in the preseason, even in the first game of this season. So I I think he got to stick that. I think Nick Robertson's a great goalscorer. Sidney Crosby can really benefit with having Nick Robertson on his line, setting him up, getting him in his position, and just really letting him have a monster season. So I really like to see Dan use make that move with Robertson going back up with Crosby because I think they really had a great connection. You really don't want to break that up when something like that does happen, and we just kind of see look here. It's uh, you know, how he's playing. No fifty three percent on the faceoff dot. We just kind of see like where his possession is. You see his offensive zone possession is fifty two point three percent. His neutral zone he's out there sixty three percent of the time, and then you see he goes down like third period. No, see, you know forty three percent. So you know, you know, we kind of need to see that you know kind of up a little bit. You know, the neutral zone's like you know high. We want to see it more into the offensive zone where he is getting more chances. You know, but offensive zone being positive over fifty percent is great. We would just like to see that you know get you know getting up there a higher, winning more offensive zone faceoffs. You know, obviously he's winning a lot neutral zone ones right now. As defensive zone ones are a bit low, which we'd like to see him you know get up a little bit as well. But you know, these are just early things, early things that are happening here. And obviously we've seen McKel on his line. You know, he has two assists as well. So both these guys four points through these two players in this top line. I think they really need Robertson. I really do. I think this guy is a great goalscorer, is a great shot, and putting up with Crosby and McKel, who McKel gets scoring past two. I think would be a great dynamic first line. They really need to do that. I think. I think they brought in Robertson to be a twenty twenty five goalscorer this year. Getting him up with Crosby will get him there, and maybe even a way above that. So hopefully we can see that happen this year. And obviously, you know, at this point, we can't just harp on Crosby. We got to help him create, right? Like we got to test line combinations, create more sustained possession, put support near the box. So just try to find Crosby in front, try to get him a goal, try to get him an easy one to get it off his back, and you know, start getting the confidence again that he can can score goals at this age. And I really do like I really do like Sidney Crosby. I do think he will get back to form and he will have a great season here. But you know, right now the veterans are facing scrutiny. Like you see here from Josh Owen, it says you know we can get picky about what's wrong with the Penguins, and there are many things you can point to. But there are really many of the important, most important players: Sidney, McKel, Crosby, and Tank aren't playing well right now, and it can't be that simple, right? Like you, it can't be that simple, it says, and and then do you agree, right? Obviously, you have a lot of these young guys who've stepped up early, like like Lafleur, Koyvenin, like all these you know bottom six guys have stepped up and scored goals for this team early in the season. Just let them to get some wins here early on. But right now you need these veteran guys. You know that you know need to step up because if you are going to offense from your bottom six, you need it from your top guys as well. And I know Malkin has had a good start to the year, and you know he has been you know leading the charge here, and that sends up. Like I'm kind of looking at Crosby and Markel here. I, you know, I'm not so on Carlson. I think Carlson has played all right. He's been given the puck away a lot, which we're going to talk about in a bit. But you know, he has been solid offensively in the Tang. He's a guy who needs to step up too. So hopefully, we can see the veterans start the the step up here. And you know, Eric Carlson creates through the pressure, right? Like, so the pressure of saying all the veterans are uh you know are facing scrutiny and are under fire. Like he still has five points this year. He's averaging about 23 minutes on ice. He still, Eric Carlson, we all know, he's got ten shots on net, two power play points, which is great. This guy has been producing very well for this team this season, and it's great to see him, you know, come back be Eric Carlson that we all know and love. So that's great to see. And obviously, he's a big factor on the power play right now. He has two power play points, which has led to a 20 percent power play for the Pittsburgh Penguins, which in a small sample size would like to see, you know, a little bit higher with how many opportunities we have had. But on the less, he does have two points on the power play this season. And kind of just see his partners right now. Him and Carlile have been on fire. It's four goals, four three goals against. So they're positive there, and I really like what I'm seeing from Declan Carlile. Like I said, the veterans are stepping up. The young guys are. Declan Carlile is a guy who's stepping up big time, having great games night in night out, playing with Latang with Carlson, and that's so great to see a guy like that step up out of nowhere. And I think he's going to have a tremendous season for us here in Pittsburgh. And just looking at you know some things for Carlson, do that are interesting. You know, he has four ninety plus mile an hour shots this year, so he still has that power in him to rip the shots from the blue line, which is great to see. And we just kind of see here Carlson must cut costly giveaways. That's kind of what's happening with him right now. Just just looking at this, you know, he he we're not even two minutes in the one game, and Josh was tweeting, "No Carlson had a major giveaway, " and then we also see here he has he has twelve giveaways right now, no takeaways, twelve giveaways early on this season. We need to see him, you know, make more better decisions when passing. You know, not giving the puck away so much and just keeping it simple, right? Keeping even if it's going short. You know, keeping a simple game is what Eric Carlson needs right now. Going forward, obviously he needs to be the veteran that kind of steps up in this locker room and kind of you know has the other thirty year olds step up in this situation because right now you know Crosby, Rukel, Latang, all these guys need to you know turn the clock back and really have a good season for the team because the young guys who weren't expected to do good are playing good right now and they need some support from the leaders in the locker room to have their backs as well. And we just kind of look at Carlson shot selection right now. Like I said, he has like four shots over ninety miles an hour, so he's playing terrific. You know, being Eric Carlson, being you know a Norris winning defender, which he was, and just you know ripping shots from blue line, like getting tips on. You know, we seen a couple of games ago Malkin tipping one in from Carlson shot. Like as he keeps sifting pucks on the net, guys are going to be in front. It's going to cause havoc, and they're going to score goals. And they're rebounding. You're going to need to score goals this year for the Pittsburgh Penguins for sure. Because right now. They're struggling, like they're collapsing in games. Their defense has been rough, and right now they just all need to kind of lock in, and especially the veterans. They need to obviously they're leading the room, but they need to lead by example on the ice as well, by scoring goals, making big plays, and we're not really seeing that early on this season. We just kind of look at the special teams. The penalty kill has been amazing, ninety four percent. Like they're killing a lot of penalties, but the power play hasn't really been producing as much as the as the penalty kill. So we need the special teams on the power play side to jump off a bit too, and that obviously leads the line with Crosby getting on the on the goal sheet and just scoring another goal and getting this offense back because you know only scoring three goals on his last seventy three shots is a bit alarming, but it's not something I would read into too much. But just looking at what the next adjustments that Pittsburgh needs to do to win their next game is give Carlson you know safer outlets. You know, don't have them making these errant passes that he's giving away the puck. Just you know, go short, keep it simple. That's what they need right now. I think I support Crosby's line in possession, keep traffic at the net because right now, like I said, he's shooting pucks on and people are getting in front of him and they're knocking them down and they're scoring goals on the rebound, and if that's the way you guys score this year, then keep doing it because they got a lot of guys with a lot of great hand eye in front that net this year who can tip pucks in, and Carlson's a great guy who can has a seeing eye shot that can find those sticks as well. So let me know what you guys think down below in the comments. What do you think would change Pittsburgh's game? Is it Crosby? You know, getting new line mates. You know, obviously getting him a little bit of a shake up, getting him his first goal. You think that would really turn around the year here for Pittsburgh? You think you know Carlson's pucks important? Do you think it's going to be him making those smarter passes, getting more shorter outlets to kind of start the play, or do you think it's the power play set up? Do you think the power play needs to be better? Let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section because something needs to change here in in Pittsburgh because Cindy Crosby still hasn't scored a goal and we need to see him score one very soon and just get him back into form. So let me know what you guys are thinking down below in the comment section while you are down there. Leave a like, subscribe to the channel. It's always every no casey. Keep us sick on the ice.