Tim Benz: Penguins didn't pass 20-minute test without Sidney Crosby. The road ahead now looks much longer

Once it was clear that Sidney Crosby wasn’t coming back from injury, the Pittsburgh Penguins needed to be better than the New York Rangers for just 20 minutes to end their first-round playoff series.

They weren’t. Now they might need to be better without him for 60 minutes. Or else they are going to have to play 120 without him.

Based on how the first 20 without Crosby looked, that’s going to be very difficult.

The Penguins lost Game 5 in New York by a final score of 5-3. The Rangers’ victory kept them alive in the series, which the Penguins now lead 3-2 with Game 6 coming in Pittsburgh on Friday.

Crosby was knocked out of the game thanks to an elbow to the head from Jacob Trouba. He didn’t take a shift for roughly the last six minutes of the second period. From there, the Rangers scored three goals in under three minutes to erase a 2-0 deficit and claim a 3-2 lead.

Coach Mike Sullivan would only call it an “upper body” injury for Crosby. It’s understandable that the Pens would be discombobulated seeing their previously concussed captain skate off the ice following a blow to the head. Especially at a time when he has been playing some of the best hockey of his life.

But Jake Guentzel — also playing some of the best hockey we’ve ever seen out his all-star career — scored for the second time on the night to tie the game 3-3 before the second intermission.

Another one of these would be nice ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/0wEU2pxCiL

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 12, 2022

OK. So Crosby left the game. Yes. That stinks.

But Guentzel’s goal that evened the score was a potential crossroads for the series. The Rangers poured everything they had into getting that lead. Madison Square Garden was on fire. And Guentzel tied up the game just 13 seconds after Trouba (or the new Adam Graves, if you prefer) gave them the lead. Troubled goalie Igor Shesterkin screwed up yet again with a puck-handling gaffe that eventually led to Guentzel’s score.

This was as even as it was going to get playing without Crosby. Given the circumstance of 87’s absence, you couldn’t ask for a better way to get to the locker room. The Penguins absorbed a punch, countered with strength and needed to use that momentum to carry them past Crosby’s injury and outplay the Rangers in the third and end the series.

Get rest for Crosby for the next round. Avoid having to play one — maybe two — more games in this series without their best player.

What happened in the third period was far from that.

• Marcus Pettersson was hit with an interference penalty just 68 seconds into the period. It led to a Ranger power play goal from Filip Chytil. It would prove to be the game-winner.

• Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin collided at one point in the offensive end, resulting in a 4-on-1 break for the Rangers. Only a flashy glove save by Louis Domingue prevented the score from being 5-3 much earlier in the period.

• At the 6:57 mark, the Penguins got a power play of their own. But the power play ended early and with just one shot on goal. That’s because Guentzel and Malkin were both sent to the penalty box after a scrum with Ryan Lindgren. So, after a brief 4-on-4, the Penguins were shorthanded again.

• They’d be shorthanded a third time at 12:38 when Malkin got called for roughing Kevin Rooney long after the puck was gone — something the ESPN broadcast initially thought was going to be a cross-check to the face.

• The Penguins dominated the faceoff circle all game long, winning the battle 39-19. But they did little with the possession and territory they earned from those victories.

“We didn’t win the wall battles. We didn’t get pucks out. We had four or five minutes of extended defensive zone play. We simply have to do a better job there,” Sullivan said of the period of time immediately after Crosby left the game.

Guentzel didn’t want to use Crosby’s absence as an excuse.

“We have plenty of leaders on this team that do a lot. We never want to see a player like that leave, but we have to find a way,” Guentzel said.

After his own goal to end the second period, though, that didn’t happen.

Now attrition is becoming a problem for the Penguins. Before Crosby got hurt, the Penguins entered this game without defenseman Brian Dumoulin, forward Rickard Rakell and both of their top two goaltenders (Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith).

None of that approaches Crosby’s absence for however long it may be. Had the Pens been able to bridge the end of the second period into the third better, though, maybe they wouldn’t have to worry about it until the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins wrap up their series, which is also destined for at least a sixth game (Thursday night with Carolina up 3-2).

Long after his battle with concussions that sidelined him for so much of the 2011 and 2012 seasons, Crosby once again dealt with an issue like this in the playoffs. Back in 2017, he took a hit to the head from Matt Niskanen in Game 3 of a series the Penguins eventually won in seven games against the Washington Capitals.

The Penguins lost that game when Crosby left, but won Game 4 without him and went on to win the Stanley Cup with Crosby claiming the Conn Smythe.

Most Penguins fans, I’m sure, would be content making smaller wishes for the near future this time around. Like simply Crosby coming back to help the team win the series it once led 3-1.

Or at least his teammates keeping it together better without him for however long he is sidelined.