How can the Rangers stop, or contain, Sidney Crosby and his line mates? (2024)

The Rangers find themselves on the brink of elimination in their first trip back to the playoffs since 2016-17 heading into Game 5. If they’re going to have any chance at extending this series, this team is going to have to figure out a way to contain Sidney Crosby and the Penguins’ top line.

Through four games, Crosby’s scored two goals and seven assists. But his impact goes deeper than just those nine points — and he’s not alone in tilting the ice on that first line. Game 4 put their dominance on display at five-on-five, as Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Bryan Rust pushed the pace of play to a tune of a 92.8 percent expected goals rate. Over all four games, about 63 minutes of play, they’ve controlled about 81.6 percent of the expected goals share.

So, how can the Rangers try to stop that?

It starts with Crosby, the star player down the middle who is still one of the best players in the league — and has only elevated his game in the playoffs.

“How I like to describe Sid is he’s a skilled grinder — the best skilled grinder ever, basically,” former NHLer and current ESPN analyst Dom Moore said, noting that’s the utmost compliment at this time of year.

“(Crosby) thrives on contact, he thrives on playing in tight areas, he thrives on playing with guys on his back in the corners, protecting the puck in the hard areas. We’ve all seen them spin off bigger, stronger players, kind of absorb the contact, take it, break free and make plays happen time and time again over the years,” Moore continued.

“Crosby’s center of gravity in his strength on his skates and all that, they’re such hallmarks of his game, that’s what I mean about his ability to grind. Other skilled players, they thrive on space, and they’re masters at giving themselves the space that they need,” Moore added, who has experienced going against Crosby and the Penguins in the playoffs first hand — with the Rangers in 2014, 2015, and 2016, as well as with Montreal in 2010 and Tampa Bay 2011.

That lower-body strength is something former Ranger and current MSG Networks Analyst Dave Maloney noted that lower-body strength as well, as it makes Crosby “impossible to knock off the pucks on the lower areas of the ice down below the hashmarks and below goal line.”

The Penguins’ captain has put his competitive edge on display already in this series, making plays happen himself — and he doesn’t need much time or space to make those plays happen. Just look at his goal from Game 2.

“At that point in the game, the Rangers had it in hand, but he literally takes the puck from zone and beats every one of the Rangers — in not so much a flamboyant McDavid way, but just being Sid, just taking control,” Maloney said.

But making him all the more dynamic is that he doesn’t have to do it all himself.

On that top line, both Crosby and Guentzel can skate right into the offensive zone with control; according to Sportlogiq, the center already has 17 carry-ins at five-on-five, while his winger has 14. All three members of that line can generate offense in transition. Rust is the league leaderthrough four games with six shot attempts off the rush. Guentzel’s right behind him with five (all of which have connected on goal, one of which has ended up in the back of the net), and Crosby trails the trio with four.

But this line isn’t a one-hit-wonder that folds back after a quality look like the Rangers sometimes do. Instead, they can sustain zone time and generate cycle chances too — Rust has eight slot attempts off the cycle, Crosby five, and Guentzel four.

It helps that all four players can get to the quality areas of the ice. It also helps that all four can set their teammates there as well. Crosby and Guentzel lead the way with their volume passing to the slot, but the center is the most efficient. That’s no surprise; he was a top-10 player in his passing to the slot in the regular season as well. That is a major reason why he pairs so well with Guentzel who was a top-10 player in shooting from the slot at five-on-five.

“It’s not the same as (Wayne) Gretzky and (Jarri) Kurri, but there’s a lot of it the same where, Guentzel just has wonderful hands and ability to find here the ice and Sid finds him,” Maloney noted. “So historically, I think you can look at a lot of the two-forward combos that just have a magic between the two of them where one sees the ice and the other is able to find the ice, and it makes them both much greater.”

There is also Rust, who Moore says, can’t be underestimated. “(Rust) can play that grinding style too, and doesn’t need a lot of space to make plays and, you know, tracks hard and kind of was able to kind of win pucks back before they ever go towards Pittsburgh’s end and get them back on offense quickly.”

So, how can the Rangers defend against that?

“You can’t stop (Crosby),” Dave Maloney said. “You just minimize his damage.”

That’s something Moore was tasked with through his many experiences across the rink from the Penguins.

“My philosophy with it was always that a lot of guys just try to abuse them physically and intimidate him. And he can’t be intimidated that way,” Moore explained. “I think you’ve seen that in the past with different players in the playoffs trying to play him like that. It just doesn’t work.”

The problem is, when a team just tries to outhit Crosby, it means that they don’t have the puck. If they don’t manage to separate a player from the puck in that sequence, they can very quickly find themselves chasing the play.

Instead, Moore just tried to play to his strengths.

“When I played against him, I tried to use my attributes, which were my feet, my smarts, positional decisions, just trying to match his feet down below. I wasn’t trying to abuse him physically,” Moore said. “I was just trying to match his intensity and match his competitive level, that’s probably the most important thing for me. I think you do have the ability to frustrate him that way.”

The question is who can fit that role in New York.

Focusing on the forwards first, as much as head coach Gerard Gallant insists that he does not play the matchup game, Crosby’s line has seen a lot of Mika Zibanejad’s at five-on-five. That’s not surprising given that the number one center generally takes on the top competition in his minutes.

The results, however, haven’t been in his favor. In Game 1, Pittsburgh had the clear advantage in those minutes with Crosby rocking a 82.5 percent expected goals rate in his head-to-head minutes with Zibanejad. The Penguins had an edge in Game 2, though to a lesser extent from that first meeting. Even when New York didn’t have last change in the next pair of tilts, he still saw most of the Penguins’ top line. In Game 3, the Rangers had the advantage in those minutes. In Game 4, the away team got worked with the Penguins generating about 90 percent of the expected goals share.

“The problem with Mika is that he’s not winning either way. He’s not producing offensively. And he’s not shutting down Crosby,” Maloney explained. “So maybe asking him to be that defensive center iceman and defensive presence against Crosby, maybe that doesn’t work either because you’re not accomplishing anything when Mika is not producing and he’s not stopping him.”

For Zibanejad, it’s starting at the dot and trickling down into the rest of his shifts.

“With Mika in the faceoff circle, Sid is coming out on the winning side way too often. And I think it’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of thing that if he’s winning draws, that means things are going well for him and he’s starting with the puck,” Moore added.

If the idea, now that the Rangers are back on home ice, is to free up their No. 1 center and overall top line so he can play to his strengths, there isn’t a clear option lower in the lineup to handle this workload — and the injury to Barclay Goodrow only furthers that.

While he’s a player who could fit the bill, as Moore explained, “it’s never just a one person thing” defending the Penguins’ top line. The former center cited his time with current Penguin and former Ranger Brian Boyle, and how the two worked together to slow Crosby’s game.

“Brian Boyle and I were able to work off of each other and support each other, because we both were accustomed to playing down low in the defensive zone. But I don’t see a good option (on this team).”

In theory, the Rangers aren’t risking too much offense if the fourth line was matched against Crosby versus Zibanejad’s line. The focus can be defense for them, without limiting one of the better-producing trios at the top of the line.

The problem with this fourth line, especially without Goodrow, is that there isn’t as much upside.

“I think you have to be able to play with the puck, as well. You have to be able to hold onto the puck and make plays offensively. You can’t just defend against a line like that, because eventually it ends up in the back of your net,” Moore continued, highlighting what Goodrow and Blake Coleman did for Tampa Bay because they could take time and space away from their opponents and make plays in the offensive zone.

If the fourth line can’t shake it for that very reason, then maybe the first line is the answer with some adjustments — whether it’s moving Andrew Copp, who also can play center and knows those responsibilities, up in the lineup so Zibanejad has more support down low, or seeing if Kaapo Kakko or Alexis Lafrenière can handle it.

It’s obviously not just on the forwards. There are considerations on the blue line too. Usually, it’s been Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller in this matchup. There’s a plus and minus to this combination. But there aren’t as many other options, especially with Ryan Lindgren out of the lineup leaving Adam Fox in a more imbalanced top pair.

Moore pointed to Ryan McDonagh as the ideal example of a player who matches up well, because of his mobility.

“He can move — his lateral movement and agility could keep up with a guy like Sid down low,” Moore said.

That foot speed and agility is a drawback of a player like Trouba. His partner, however, has the makings for that role.

“I personally, will say, it’d be probably better if K’Andre Miller had a year or two more of experience. It’s that type of player, I think you have to have to defend them. You have to have someone that’s mobile, that plays in somewhat control, because we start running around against him. He’s gonna find people, it’s just inevitable. When you hit the panic button early, it’s inevitable,” Maloney said, stressing the importance of being both patient and mobile in these situations.

That patience in important against the chaos that the Penguins’ top line can create when they’re dominating puck possession, and getting right to the quality areas in front of the Rangers’ blue paint.

“I wish I could come up with a theory on how to stop them,” Maloney said. “But I just think you have to concede a point or two and then outplay the rest of the lineup.”

“(Pittsburgh’s) willing to throw the puck towards the net and create some kind of chaos that’s like keys to the game,” Maloney expressed. “The Rangers have had trouble with the chaos that Sid’s line creates once they get possession in the offensive zone. You can’t outrace a mistake. Maybe that’s a little too old school, but I do think that if you can maintain your composure when there’s chaos, I think you have a better chance.”

Along with managing the chaos Crosby’s line can create, New York has to find ways to adjust on the fly to find other ways to score themselves — whether they can find a way to win the possession game and finish at a high rate of their chances, as they did in the regular season, or do just enough to slow the top line and outscore the other three lines.

“You’re just trying to play in a way to limit (the Penguins) playing to their strengths,” Moore said. “and I think Pittsburgh has done that better than the Rangers have.”

Data via Evolving-Hockey, Natural Stat Trick, HockeyViz, and Sportlogiq.

(Top photo: Joe Sargent / NHLI via Getty Images)