Crosby continues to struggle - Worst season to date?

Crosby continues to struggle - Worst season to date?

I've not hidden from criticising Crosby in the past, specifically this season which has been a tough one. But, I have understood how at times this season Crosby has been hamstrung by the injuries of his more skilled line-mates which has left him with players still developing and not yet ready for the NHL, like Bryan Rust, or players who shouldn't be in the top 6 for long stretches of time like Downie.

I have also understood how he has had a change in roles this season which has seen his ice-time change. Last season Crosby had on average 21:58 TOI per game which has dropped this season to 20:03 per game. That is quite a sizeable drop for the best player in the league. Over the 78 games he is expected to play this season that is a reduction of 149 hours and 50 minutes. That is a lot.

Crosby so far this season has had 19 pointless games out of the 46 he has played. In his last 24 games he has 12 pointless games. In total thsi season this means that he has 52 points in 27 games which is a point per game of just under 2.00PPG. Now two points. It is impressive that he has 52 points in 27 games but also worrying that he has 0 in 19. Another thing that is also sticking out is the fact that he has just 6 goals in the last 26 games.

For a player who is meant to be one of the strongest and have the best back-hand in the league that is worrying. He is currently on 15 goals this season and on pace to finish with just 25 which would be his worst season in terms of goal-scoring where he has played the majority of the season. Crosby's shooting % is still below his career average though. He is currently shooting at 10.4% against his career average of 14.5%. That is a big gap.

All in all, it is a worrying trend this season that Crosby appears to have a run of 3-4 games where he puts up a decent number of points, as evidenced in January where he put up back to back 3 point nights. He then frequently has periods of 5-10 games where he just doesn't produce and puts up a few single point nights and doesn't threaten the score-board as he should. I'm hoping that Crosby snaps out of this and manages to put up 90+ points because that is about the best we can probably hope for right now. I don't think he'll win the Art Ross though, that is gone. It is over to Crosby now though, he has to step up.