Penguins’ depth shined in bigger roles during Crosby’s absence

Sidney Crosby returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup Wednesday night, but despite the Pens’ captain recording a goal and an assist, the Carolina Hurricanes came away with a 6-5 overtime win.

However, the Penguins’ depth shined in Crosby’s absence, highlighting that this Pittsburgh group may be better suited for the playoffs than originally thought.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Crosby’s return and who stepped up in his absence.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I wonder how big of a boost having Crosby returning to the lineup is, especially when you look at how they played without him. In the 11 games without him, Erik Karlsson had 14 points, Bryan Rust over a point per game, Egor Chinakhkov had 10 points, and Anthony Mantha scored six times in the 11 games.

These are guys who got extra opportunity with Crosby out of the lineup. Now I wonder if you’re a little bit more confident: your minutes might go back down, but are you not just feeling yourself a little bit more down the stretch?

Carter Hutton: I think that is an important point, too. There just can’t be a lull in the action, because we’ve seen that before and I really, just comparing it to when Brady Tkachuk came back for the Ottawa Senators, it was almost like they had a big slump when he came back. You start to look down the road and think, “Well Sid’s back and he can carry the weight.” But if guys can use this confidence boost and be in a better situation to push.

What I think will come into play is the leadership. You think about the guys who have been there and done it, and they’re not going to let this team off the gas because they know how important these points are.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…