Crosby downplays Masterton nomination, but a deserving candidate

WASHINGTON -- Sidney Crosby was his usual humble, appreciative self on Thursday morning after being informed that he was the Penguins' nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.

"I think there's a lot of deserving guys in the room," he said of his reaction after the Penguins' morning skate at Capital One Arena. "That's the way I see it. I obviously appreciate the nomination, but it could have went to a lot of guys, I think."

You could make a case for a number of Crosby's teammates, sure. Bryan Rust has battled injuries and through it all, has had a bounce-back year. Jeff Carter, at age 39, has managed to have a pretty OK season and accepted his earlier healthy scratches this season with understanding and professionalism. Jesse Puljujarvi worked his way back from double hip resurfacing surgery. Tristan Jarry had a decent year after his 2022-23 season was marred by injury. Alex Nedeljkovic went from a borderline AHL/NHL goaltender in Detroit to someone who has taken over the No. 1 role as of late. 

But Crosby could be a perennial, deserving nominee. No, he's not overcoming a terrible injury or health issue, and he didn't have to battle adversity off the ice. But with the work he puts into his game, there's nobody else that best exemplifies a dedication to hockey. With his role as a leader on the team, an ambassador to the game and just an overall great human, nobody else best exemplifies sportsmanship. And with him having the season he's having at age 36 -- 39 goals and 45 assists in 76 games, on a mission to drag the Penguins into a postseason spot at any cost, he's a model of perseverance in his own way.

While Crosby may not quite agree with his own nomination -- the second nomination of his career, after he was a finalist in 2013 after his bounce back from concussions -- his teammates sure think he's deserving.

"It's everything he stands for," Rickard Rakell said. "It's about the leadership on and off the ice, the time he puts into getting to the top of his game. It's obviously well-deserved."

"It's the way he carries himself," added Marcus Pettersson. "He represents the game, in a way. He doesn't only represent us, for a long time he's been the face of hockey, too. The passion that he brings, and the love for the game that he brings, he's a very, very well-deserving nominee."

"It's everything about him," Drew O'Connor said. "I mean, you see the career he's put together. And the fact that he's still playing at an elite level for so many seasons? It's crazy to watch. He's dealt with some pretty significant injuries over his career, and to come back and continue to produce at that same elite level for as long as he's been doing it now, combined with how good he is as a leader for us, how good he is off the ice as a person, it all makes a lot of sense that he's the one that got the nomination."

MICHELLE CRECHIOLO / PENGUINS

Sidney Crosby at the Penguins' morning skate in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Crosby is having one of the better seasons of his career. His projected pace of 42 goals would be the third-best of his career, rivaled by only his 44-goal season in 2016-17 and his 51-goal season in 2009-10. On nights where the Penguins haven't been at their best, he's shown an ability at times to singlehandedly will his team to win. If the Penguins can earn their way into the playoffs, Crosby should seriously get some consideration for the Hart Memorial Trophy as the player most valuable to his team, too. If the Penguins make the playoffs, it will be because of Crosby. It doesn't get much more valuable than that.

Crosby is actually having one of the best seasons ever by a 36-year-old player, ranking fifth in goals and sixth in points with six games to go.

"I'm not surprised at all," Rakell said of seeing what Crosby does at age 36. "I think that's he gets rewarded for the dedication he has. I mean, he doesn't look his age."

"He wants to be that guy all the time," Pettersson said of Crosby's drive. "He's hard on himself when he's not. I think for us, he always finds a way to be the leader we need him to be. He leads on the ice, but off the ice he brings everybody together. All he wants to do is win, and he wants to win with his teammates."

It's a love for the game that has Crosby able to do that.

"I think just having a passion for it," Crosby said of what has him continuing to persevere and have the season he is. 'It's just enjoying the competition and competing, and it's obviously something that you can only do for so long. I want to make the most of the time I have to be able to do it."

Heck, one of the best examples of Crosby's dedication to hockey might have been the way he spent his All-Star break. Most players used that time off for rest and relaxation. Crosby took a trip to Big Sky, Montana before he had to participate in the All-Star game, and couldn't even stay off the ice. He secured ice up in the mountains and used that time to work on his craft:

To anyone who knows Crosby, that was the least surprising thing in the world. Even the day after Christmas -- a mandatory off day in the NHL -- he was at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, skating on his own in a weighted vest.

"It's the commitment to his craft and wanting to master his craft, and how meticulous he is about everything," Dubas said at the time of Crosby taking the time to skate over the holiday break. "Not only does he do it for himself, he pulls other people along with him. I think that's a major difference between him and some others. He's obviously going to be very meticulous about his preparation. But he's bringing others along with him. I think that's what helps too. I know that's what helps to raise the level of the group, even at 36 years old. It's remarkable. And it's been a special experience to see him in action every day."

Next year Crosby will be in the final season of his current contract, a 12-year deal that he signed back in 2012. While he's publicly been non-committal about what his future holds beyond 2025, he's not going anywhere. He's still able to play at a high-level, and he wants to be a Penguin for life. He can keep going for as long as he wants.

As far as sportsmanship, Crosby is a model of that both on and off the ice. Off the ice, he's an ambassador to the game. He never turns down media, and is almost always available to speak in the locker room after games and practices. He's generous with his time, as exemplified in a story Brian Boyle recently shared of Crosby spending nearly an hour playing bubble hockey with Boyle's young son Declan after a game when Boyle's family was in town during the 2021-22 season, and taking the time to FaceTime with Boyle's kids when they were back home in the Boston area. He's accessible to fans, with Mike Sullivan noting that he's never seen Crosby turn down a kid seeking an autograph or looking to meet him.

"Some of the small gestures for me are the ones that mean most," Sullivan said. "Not everybody gets a chance to see that side of Sid."

Crosby is just a giver too, whether it be for teammates or complete strangers. I've seen him before in front of me on the drive into PPG Paints Arena for game nights, and he's cut across lanes approaching an intersection to get next to the median to give money to a homeless person. One of my favorite stories about Crosby came courtesy of Joseph Blandisi, who recalled what Crosby did for Adam Johnson after Johnson's NHL debut in Nashville in 2019.

"I remember that the day after (Johnson's) first NHL game," Blandisi told me after Johnson's death in October. "Crosby had his tailor in the dressing room and got Johnny a suit from his tailor as a congratulations for his first NHL game. That's a story I always tell when people ask me how it was playing with Sid, I always tell the story that he bought Johnny a suit after his first game. That always stuck with me."

Within the locker room and on the ice, Crosby is a great influence on the Penguins' younger players over the years as they've broken into the NHL.

"Certainly in my time here, I've put a lot of guys beside him that have been really young players," Sullivan said. "There's a lot of pressure when you play with a player like Sid, and I think he does just a terrific job in mentoring guys. There's been a number of years -- Conor Sheary was one, Jake Guentzel was another, off the top of my head -- that were really young players that we put with Sid right away early on, and I think he had a huge influence on their growth and development as players. I just think he has an awareness of the influence that he has around the players in our room."

The Professional Hockey Writers Association will vote for the winner and finalists for the Masterton among a pool of players that includes Crosby and nominees from each of the 31 other teams in the league. The Penguins have had three players win the award in the past, including Kris Letang just last year after he dealt with a stroke, a broken foot, and the death of his father all within a short period of time. Before Letang it was Mario Lemieux in 1993, who took home the award after missing 24 games due to Hodgkin's lymphoma. The first Penguin to win the award was Lowell McDonald in 1973 after overcoming ligament and cartilage damage to his knee. 

Crosby reflected on Letang's win last season on Thursday, after he succeeded him as the Penguins' nominee.

"Given the fact that he had gone through (the stroke) once before, and then having to go through it again and seeing over the years how hard he's worked and what he's gone through to still be playing to a level that he is, it's really impressive," Crosby said. "It was much more deserving, probably, than my nomination."

Crosby's certainly a different kind of nominee than Letang and some winners in the past. But he should merit serious consideration in the final voting over the coming weeks. There's no better ambassador to the game, and nobody is more dedicated to hockey than he is.

Don't believe Crosby when he tries to downplay his nomination -- he's a deserving nominee, and he'd be a deserving winner. Whether he likes it or not.