It's not possible to describe in any detail the overtime goal Sidney Crosby deflected Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, the one that pushed the Penguins past the Flyers, 5-4, without first delving into the past.
Meaning the distant past for its real roots, but also the recent past, as in the team's last drills at the last practice.
Over much of the summer of 2013, Crosby was taking tips -- in both the hockey and advisory senses of the term -- to become dramatically better at the deft art of slightly altering the path of someone else's shot. He'd seek out lessons from NHL aces in that art. He'd study video for the smartest body angles, the slickest grips and twists of the stick. Above all, of course, he and his helpers would rifle through buckets and buckets of pucks.
Kris Letang knows. He was often part of that bucket brigade. Still is, actually.
"For years now," Letang would offer with a smile after this game.
"Almost every day," Crosby would fairly echo when I asked him.
It's true. No fewer than four times a week, Crosby and Patric Hornqvist, the team's net-front pit bull, will hang on the rink well after the regular practice, stand to either side of the crease and tip away. Letang, Justin Schultz and others fire away.
And sometimes, they do it for real, too: At 1:48 of overtime on this night, with a four-on-three power play having just elapsed, Letang fired away, Crosby tipped, and poor Brian Elliott might as well have been a fire hydrant:
Happen to notice Hornqvist right next to the captain, just like those drills, offering the point man a second option and the opposing goaltender a second distraction?
Happen to notice Letang let up on his shot in the final few inches of windup?
If not, that's deserving of a second look, illustrating the abrupt halt on the follow-through that exposes his intention to merely push the puck, not crush it:
Happen to notice how taking something off the velocity ensured the puck would stay close enough to ice level that Crosby wouldn't need to dig too deep in the hand-eye-coordination well?
Follow the path that might as well be scraping shavings:
Happen to notice Elliott's glove sink almost as low as those shavings?
That's the very essence of the deflection, forcing the goaltender to react to the shot while not affording him the chance to adjust back to where he already was:
Happen to notice that the puck struck the toe of Crosby's stick, not the blade or heel, as it might appear?
The captain confirmed that for me, and that, too, is part of the process. There's a softer touch on the puck at the furthest part of the stick. There's a little more give. The puck will glance rather than ricochet.
I asked for more:
Catch the answer about the eye contact?
Letang confirmed that for me, too, while adding that he initially thought to go low when the Flyers' defenseman, Ivan Provorov, "came up on me" and abandoned Crosby. Once Provorov slid up, Crosby slightly raised his stick, though the eyes already had it.
"He's been working on goals like this for a long time, beating the goalie from behind him," Letang said. "He became really good at it."
Really good?
He took a little off that assessment, too.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY