Kevin Gorman: Islanders should be alarmed by Sidney Crosby's scoreless game

UNIONDALE, N.Y.

Something was missing next to Sidney Crosby’s name on the score sheet for the opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, as the 100-point scorer went scoreless.

Statistically speaking, Game 1 against the New York Islanders wasn’t a great showing for the Pittsburgh Penguins captain. He didn’t produce a point, lost 14 of his 24 faceoffs and was on the ice for the Islanders’ first and final goals of regulation.

When Tom Kuhnhackl comes closer to scoring than Crosby, and the former Penguins winger almost scored twice for the Islanders, that’s an ominous sign.

It was a negative night all around for the Penguins’ top line of Crosby (minus-1), Jake Guentzel (minus-1) and Bryan Rust (minus-2), as none of them registered a point.

The Islanders used a ferocious forecheck to force them to spend too much time in their zone and not enough creating scoring chances.

“I think we just didn’t do a good job of getting into our zone. If you’re spending half of your shift there, you don’t have a lot of energy to go the other way and do things there,” Crosby said Thursday. “We’ve got to give ourselves a chance to create things offensively.

“It’s probably what we’ll take out of Game 1. We definitely have to be better.”

That’s why the Islanders should be alarmed.

It was their best game, and they barely won.

The Stanley Cup playoff mantra — it’s just one game — applies here. Crosby had a sub-par performance, at least by his otherworldly standards, and the Islanders still needed overtime for a 4-3 victory Wednesday night.

Imagine if Sid had starred from the start and came out shooting the way Kuhnhackl and the Islanders did. With a lead, the Penguins could have silenced a boisterous Coliseum crowd and forced the Islanders to play a different game.

But Crosby didn’t and, well, that’s the playoffs.

Now, hockey’s most motivated player just got an added dose.

“I don’t think you can dwell on games, whether they’re good or bad,” Crosby said. “You just try to learn from them. That’s just the nature of the playoffs.

“You’re going to play well and, sometimes, it doesn’t go your way.”

The Islanders’ defensive pairing of Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock deserves credit for holding Crosby, Guentzel and Rust to a combined three shots on goal — or half as many as Evgeni Malkin took — by playing fast and physical forcing the Penguins to play in tight spaces.

But to expect that of the Islanders every game is a stretch.

“Those things happen. Those games happen. Sid’s been around the league long enough that games like that happen,” Rust said. “He knows how to bounce back, so I don’t think it’s a problem. I think you see him turn his game up a notch, just dialed in a little bit more.”

And that only makes Crosby more dangerous, especially in the playoffs.

Crosby showed that last year, following a scoreless Game 2 in the first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers with a four-point performance in Game 3. He followed a scoreless Game 2 in the second round against the Washington Capitals with a goal and an assist in Game 3.

It’s easy to count on Crosby, and it’s no wonder Mike Sullivan didn’t blink when asked about Crosby, as the Penguins coach expressed confidence the top line would be more productive as the series continues.

Crosby, Guentzel and Rust combined for 93 goals and 211 points this season, so Sullivan isn’t about to panic after all three went without a point in the first postseason game, especially when the Islanders were focused on shutting them down.

“Listen, they’re a good line,” Sullivan said. “I know they’ll respond the right way. These guys are competitive guys. It’s not like they didn’t have some looks. They did, and we just have to stay with it.”

None is more competitive than Crosby, and the Penguins have all the confidence he will respond the right way and change those zeroes on the score sheet to goals and assists.

To expect otherwise would be pointless.