McDavid currently has a five point lead over Crosby in the Art Ross standings but Crosby has two games in hand on him and Patrick Kane, who is in second with 70 points to Crosby's 69. However, Crosby has been struggling to produce in some games lately. Which raises the questions whether he is now too far behind McDavid to win it and whether he should concentrate on the Rocket Richard which he leads with 34 goals to Laine's 32 goals.
Some of that has been down to the fact that the Penguins have been beset by injuries on their wings for the past few months. The biggest miss was Conor Sheary who was a regular on Crosby's line and made it click. In the game against Buffalo Sullivan appeared to be open to change and gave some time to a combination of Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary which completely controlled the game. If he can get a clicking combination back it could help.
In the four game road Canadian trip the Penguins are playing the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames before continuing the trip in the Eastern side of Pennsylvania. Those four teams are 27th, 20th, 17th and 10th in goals against in the league. So is some potential there for a good haul. Especially with the attacking game that is more prevalent in Edmonton which leaves them exposed at times in defence.
Looking at the next week it could be key in deciding if Crosby can win the Art Ross or Rocket Richard. He has four games this week and McDavid has three, meaning one of the games in hand will be used up. On his current pace McDavid would end the week with 78 points. So Crosby will need to score eight points in those four games to match him. It will be a hard task to match but this being Crosby it isn't impossible. Doing the above would leave around 15 games to go on a tear and, possibly, hit 100 points?
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