Sorry, but I've got no words for this one. Very few, anyway.
And far more telling, no one else could muster much, either.
So how about if we all just clear out of Sidney Crosby's airspace and revisit, from all available angles, the double-tap goal he somehow scored behind a stunned Carey Price at 15:02 of the second period during the Penguins' 5-3 victory over the Canadiens on this Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Maestro, if you will ...
Wow. Crosby. pic.twitter.com/GjJOSQhHpf
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 22, 2018
I mean ... what's there to say for that?
To be sure, neither of the participating coaches could come up with much.
"Well, it was a huge goal for us," Mike Sullivan would say, referring to it tying the score at three each, not the magnitude of its excellence. "It was an answer to the goal they got to gain the lead, so to go into the locker room after two periods with a tie game was really important for us. So it was a huge goal for us."
He then seemed to catch himself, realizing he hadn't addressed that whole excellence thing.
"The last time I saw somebody bat it out of the air the way he did was probably Sid. Because he's gotten a handful of them over the last few years. He's got such great hand skills. He scores goals from unique situations. He thinks the game on such a level that a lot of players don't even consider. He's just ... he's just an elite player."
On the Montreal side, Claude Julien was asked -- in French -- about Crosby's goal, and this was his response:
Yeah, I didn't understand it, either, despite taking eight years of French through high school and college. Regardless, it was short and, if I'm guessing, sweet.
The players fared no better in their praise.
"He amazes you every night," Jake Guentzel said. "You see that so much."
That's not a synopsis or snippet of Guentzel's comment on the goal. That's the totality.
"That's a world-class player making a world-class play," Casey DeSmith said. "If that's not No. 1 on 'SportsCenter,' I don't know what is. That's one of the cooler things I'll see."
Price's view from the opposite net was no more expansive, but it might have been the most powerful.
"Are you surprised?" he said. "Really?"
If you want to appreciate Price's respect all the more, glance back up at those clips to see how he immediately turns toward Crosby, as if with an are-you-kidding-me expression.
It's known to everyone. It's expected by all concerned. Sullivan's seen it up close. Julien's been scorched by it several times. Price has been on both sides, as an opponent and as Crosby's teammate in Sochi when Canada claimed Olympic gold. All of us, particularly here in our city, have witnessed it, too.
But what unimaginable volumes does it speak of Crosby that he could pull this off and barely raise a shrug from within?
The NHL's goal of the year?
One of the handful of the best in his career?
Eh, big deal.
Here was his own reaction when I brought it up:
Others tried and failed, as well.
"I was just trying to follow the bouncing puck," Crosby came back to another question. "Yeah ... it worked out. It was nice to see one go in."
I'd try one more time, asking how he'd tracked the puck arriving in the air his way.
"I think it hit off Jake's stick and came up. Just kind of came up. That's all."
Right. That's all.
Which is pretty much what everyone was saying on the same exact date a year ago in Buffalo when this took place:
Here's Sidney Crosby scoring a bunch of goals with one hand, on one leg, out of mid air, or from the weirdest positions possible. pic.twitter.com/KEi7lzt3iY
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) May 8, 2020
Never take him for granted, Pittsburgh. Every year. Every game. Every shift.
