SUNRISE, FLA. -- Sidney Crosby was a little disappointed with the way his All-Star weekend ended.
"It was 6-4, we had the lead," he said with a big grin on Saturday at the Panthers' FLA Live Arena. "After that it kind of slipped away a little bit. ... All the build up, and it's a quick exit."
Crosby and the Metropolitan Division were eliminated in the first round of the All-Star Game's three-on-three tournament in a 10-6 loss to the Atlantic Division, failing to advance to the championship game. The biggest disappointment for Crosby was that he wouldn't get to face his buddy Nathan MacKinnon in the final, after MacKinnon and the Central Division won their opening game.
Crosby's weekend ended earlier than he would have liked, but it was certainly eventful.
There was the skills competition on Friday, in which Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were the co-winners of the breakaway challenge for their goal together with Ovechkin's four-year-old son, Sergei.
Crosby and Ovechkin teamed up again for Saturday's game. The two were usually paired together in the three-on-three tournament along with Rangers defenseman Adam Fox. Crosby scored twice, both goals coming off of quick give-and-go sequences with Ovechkin:
"I didn't expect to get (the puck) back," Crosby said of those sequences. "I was thinking I did my job getting it to him. I thought he was going to finish it, but he was kind enough to send me a couple back. We had some nice goals there."
Their Metropolitan Division teammate, Johnny Gaudreau had hoped to see a little more of that.
"I thought we should have kept them on the ice the whole second period there," Gaudreau said. "We probably would have won.”
Crosby said on Friday that he does try to step back and appreciate events like these a little more as he gets older. At 35, he's not a kid anymore, and he doesn't know how many chances he has left in these games. He said Saturday that he tries to keep that idea in the back of his mind, while still staying focused on the game at hand.
"You try to go out there and have fun and stay in the moment," Crosby said. "Hopefully it's not the last one."
I asked Crosby if there's one memory that's going to stand out from this whole weekend for him when he looks back.
"Probably the skills, the breakaway with Ovi's son," he said. "That's one I'll definitely remember. But the experience of just meeting all the guys, seeing familiar faces and meeting new guys, that's what you take away from this."
This is it for the All-Star break. Life goes back to normal on Sunday, with the Penguins scheduled to practice at 4 p.m. in Cranberry. They have work ahead of them -- they currently sit in the second and final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference standings, one point ahead of the hot Sabres, three points behind the Capitals for the first wild card spot and five points behind the Rangers for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins ended the stretch before the All-Star break on a 4-3-3 skid, and they're hoping to start this next half of the season on a better note and make up for all that lost ground. Their first opportunity to do that is Tuesday at home against the Avalanche.
"I'm excited to get back at it," Crosby said. "It's nice to get a few days away. Obviously this weekend is a little busier, then we have a couple of days to prepare our next game. It's a big stretch run for a lot of teams, including us. I'm excited for that."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Columbus' Gaudreau and Florida's Matthew Tkachuk both had hat tricks in the Eastern Conference game for their respective divisions in the Atlantic's 10-6 win.
• Vancouver's Elias Pettersson might have had the greatest goal in the opening game between the Western Conference teams with a slick backhand shot but it was reviewed and called back for being offside. The NHL makes those challenge calls in these games, not the coaches. I get that it still matters in this game because there's money on the line for players and betting is going on, but it's still such a buzzkill from an entertainment perspective and slows the whole thing down. The Central won that game 6-4 to move on.
• The Atlantic Division won the championship game with a 7-5 win over the Central Division. Detroit's Dylan Larkin had a hat trick in the win.
• Tkachuk was named All-Star Game MVP. He had three goals in his team's first game and one more in the final.
• Crosby said if he could do something to improve the All-Star experience, it would be to shorten the skills competition. He said that it's fun to see what other players to do, but he'd like to see the pace get to a pace similar to that of the three-on-three game.
• Anyone else think these jersey designs looked a little too similar? I think having one team in black, one in white, one in teal, one in pink would have made things easier and they could have stuck with the same color scheme.
• Next year's All-Star Game is going to be held in Toronto. That should be fun. These last two All-Star Games have had local-inspired events in the skills competitions. Maybe something on top of the CN Tower there?
• Anyone else want to see the All-Star Game return to a normal game format? A full 60-minute, five-on-five game between the two conferences and that's it? These three-on-three games just don't seem to have the energy or speed that they once did. You get some pretty cool goals, at least.
• Fall Out Boy performed in the second intermission:
• The Penguins recalled Dustin Tokarski from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis prior to the All-Star Game. With the break ending on Sunday, it likely just means that Tristan Jarry still isn't healthy.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE SCHEDULE
The All-Star break ends tomorrow. The Penguins practice in Cranberry at 4 p.m.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.