Now that Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is in his late 30s — almost certainly a literal graybeard should he have the chance to grow one in the spring — it’s fitting that his public comments portray a calming voice of wisdom.

Yes, the Penguins are off to a lackluster start at 3-4-1, but they’re going through a pretty standard process, he told reporters in Calgary earlier this week.

Every team has to learn what its blueprint for winning is.

“I think that’s pretty typical with a lot of teams this time of year,” Crosby said. “The more and the longer we can get to it, hopefully it’s something that becomes muscle memory and second nature to us.”

The Penguins might want to gulp down some protein shakes to get that muscle memory process jump-started. Time’s wasting.

The Penguins have been under .500 after eight games only twice before in the Crosby era — when they were 0-4-4 in his rookie year and 3-5 last season — and they didn’t make the playoffs either time.

Here are five topics to ponder as the team wraps up a Western Canadian road trip with games in Edmonton on Friday and Vancouver on Saturday.

1. C is for Canada

It’s always a treat when Crosby and Connor McDavid meet, as they were scheduled to Friday night when the Penguins visited Edmonton — the best players of two consecutive generations squaring off.

In February, however, Crosby and McDavid figure to be teammates for the Canadian entry into the 4 Nations Faceoff, a best-on-best competition with the U.S., Finland and Sweden.

Which generational talent will have the “C” on his red-and-white jersey for that tournament?

McDavid’s answer was as fast as his skating.

“It should be Sid. It should be Sid for sure. That’s not even a question,” he told reporters Thursday in Edmonton. “It’s just how it should be. He’s Sidney Crosby, and he’s been there so many times and he’s the guy. It’s not like I thought about it a lot. It’s just such a no-brainer.”

2. New problem

The Penguins have been subpar defensively this season.

Using Natural Stat Trick’s facts and figures, they’re 30th in the league in goals against and 30th in high-danger scoring chances allowed.

That will come as no surprise to any fan who has watched even a period of the team’s first eight games.

But here’s a fact that might be somewhat shocking: This is a new development.

Last season, the Penguins were 13th in the league in goals against and 13th in high-danger scoring chances allowed.

Defensive personnel hasn’t changed a whole lot since then. Did swapping in Matt Grzelcyk for P.O Joseph turn the team’s defense rotten? Did swapping David Quinn for Todd Reirden, when Mike Sullivan is still running the show, make that much of a difference?

Probably not.

So when Sullivan describes the team’s defensive woes as a problem of attitude rather than a problem of tactics or roster construction, he might have a point.

“I think it starts with just the right mindset,” Sullivan said after a 6-3 loss to Winnipeg last Sunday. “We’re quick to try to jump on the offense when we don’t have the puck, and we end up putting ourselves and our teammates in tough spots. I think we’ve got to have more of a mindset to play defense first.”

3. Jarry’s recent past

When the Penguins sent goalie Tristan Jarry home to do some intensive work on his game this week, Sullivan said it was “part of the process we’ve put in place in here over the next little while to help Tristan get to his very best.”

There’s at least one reason for the Penguins to believe the process will bear fruit.

Jarry’s been horrible lately, yes, but he was pretty decent not all that long ago.

Counting his first three appearances of this season and his last 17 of last season, Jarry is 6-11-1 with an .871 save percentage in his last 20 games. That’s bad.

But in the 20 games before that, Jarry went 8-7-4 with a .917 save percentage. That’s pretty good.

If Jarry can get back to that level, he’ll be useful, whether that’s to the Penguins as part of a goalie tandem or to another team that would want to acquire him.

4. Tell your dad I said hi

When the Penguins were in Calgary, local media informed Crosby that he had met and skated with Dustin Wolf when the Flames goalie was just 10 or 11 years old. Wolf had photos to prove it.

“At this point, I’m playing against guys that I played against their dads as well,” Crosby said. “That’s how it goes.”

To that point, there are 10 active NHL players with fathers whom Crosby has played against in the NHL. Here’s the list:

Jackson Blake, Carolina (Jason); Josh Doan, Utah (Shane); Max Domi, Toronto (Tie); Kasperi Kapanen, St. Louis (Sami); William Nylander, Toronto (Michael); Cayden Primeau, Montreal (Keith); Jake Sanderson, Ottawa (Geoff); Cole Sillinger, Columbus (Mike); Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa (Keith); Matthew Tkachuk, Florida (Keith)

5. Going low

When top prospect Rutger McGroarty made his Penguins debut, he became the first forward in team history to wear a number as low as No. 2. Phil Bourque, who made the No. 29 famous as a winger, wore No. 2 for the Penguins as a rookie in 1983-84, but he was a defenseman at the time.

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