Crosby, Rakell Continue Dominance As Top Duo
Luckily for Crosby - and the Penguins - there wasn't a repeat of the same thing at the 2025 trade deadline.
Crosby's "new" best winger this season is Rickard Rakell, who is in the midst of a career year having played with the captain for most of it. Rakell has 31 goals and 59 points in 68 games on the season, and that's second on the team only to his linemate and one of hockey's best and most consistent players.
And having the consistency together as linemates this season - the two spent only a few weeks on separate lines at the very beginning of the season - has helped both of them find even more chemistry than they've had in previous campaigns, when they played together on an irrregular basis.
"I think any time you're together with linemates for an extended period of time, usually, it's a good thing," Crosby said. "That's always a good sign. Just trying to read off of one another, you know, you're talking about certain plays, and then, obviously, the power play, we're together there... so, that can carry over to five-on-five sometimes, too.
"It definitely helps, and you want to get better as the season goes on. You play different teams, and you want to find a way to be productive.'
Rickard Rakell buries the dish from Sidney Crosby, giving Crosby his 50th assist of the season!#LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/0eKkb3AgGI
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) March 15, 2025
And Rakell, too, knows that when his name is on the lineup card next to Crosby and Bryan Rust, he can expect to get some good scoring chances throughout the course of a game.
'I think it helps to be playing with each other for a long time," Rakell said. "And, for me, just playing with Sid and Rusty... I know I'm going to get a few good looks every game, so I just try to stay ready for it.'
And he has, in fact, been ready for it. The duo has combined for 54 goals and 132 points on the season - including 12 goals and 26 points in the 12 games since the 4 Nations Face-off break - and they don't appear to be slowing down.
They've also contributed an expected goals for share of 54.63 percent together, which is the best expected goals share for any regular forward duo on the Penguins' roster.
This Dynamic Duo has combined for 130 points so far this season... 🐧How many points will they collectively finish with? 💬NHL x @massmutual pic.twitter.com/w5IwVYKvKt
— NHL (@NHL) March 14, 2025
When the duo plays away from each other? Rakell has an expected goals share of just 44.61 percent, while Crosby has a mark of 46.37 percent.
A few times in the past, head coach Mike Sullivan has referenced Rakell's ability to "make something out of nothing." One of the things - aside from his lethal shot - that makes Rakell a dangerous player is his ability to expose the soft areas of the ice.
Crosby agrees.
'I think just being aware and finding that open ice," Crosby said. "He's got a great shot, really good hands... so he's able to maneuver the puck pretty well in small space and doesn't need a lot of time to get a shot off. He's proven that a lot this year.'
As for what makes Crosby so dangerous? Well, it's more than documented at this point how high-IQ and lethal a playmaker Crosby is. But, for Rakell, Crosby's consistency and ability to sustain such a high level of play in a general sense is remarkable.
The Penguins' captain is just seven points shy of setting the NHL's all-time point-per-game seasons record at 20, which would break Wayne Gretzky's previous mark of 19.
'I mean, it's so impressive to be doing it for, what is it, 20 times?" Rakell said. "He's one of the best to ever play this game. He shows why. It's such a hard game, and for him to do it every year, it's pretty nuts.'
Crosby and Rakell's chemistry this season is pretty nuts, too. And thanks to Dubas's decision to keep the duo intact - at least for the rest of the season, and, perhaps, beyond - it will only have the potential to reach even higher heights.
Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
27 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Baseball fans would take a hit if Rob Manfred's latest idea about expansion and radical realignment becomes reality
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Say it ain't so. Advertisement 'The problem with the proposal is that it's too logical, it makes so much sense, just as it works in the NHL and the NBA,' says Jane Leavy, the preeminent baseball biographer whose Advertisement 'But baseball is different. It can't presume the way those leagues can to eliminate the perquisites of its history, and so what makes sense doesn't always work for baseball. 'It's like, 'Erase the record books, erase the collective unconscious, wipe the slate clean.' Baseball is too much trapped by its history, I understand that and I get that, but it also is indebted to its history in ways that younger sports are not.' Manfred would do it all anyway, determined as he seems to write a lasting personal legacy over what's best for the game. He's already overseen dramatic change, some of it excellent (the pitch clock), some of it OK (universal designated hitter, extra-inning ghost runner), and some of it bad (automated balls and strikes, automatic intentional walks). And he's pushed back on some truly awful ideas (such as the golden at-bat). But this latest salvo shows once again how much of his own baseball soul is missing, a willingness to use the inevitability of expansion to fundamentally alter baseball fandom and history as we've known it. 'In my mind, I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,' Manfred said on the ESPN broadcast. 'I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN because you'd be playing out of the East, out of the West, and that 10 o'clock where we sometimes get Boston-Anaheim would be two West Coast teams. That 10 o'clock slot that's a problem for us sometimes becomes a real opportunity for our West Coast audience.' Advertisement We get it — baseball hasn't expanded since the 1998 addition of the Rays and Diamondbacks, and has two existing teams, Las Vegas (via Oakland) and the itinerant Rays awaiting new stadiums. Travel demands have indeed grown, but part of that is on baseball for adding regular-season interleague play. And let's be honest, the private chartered life of a baseball player is not the same as flying commercial. Plus, baseball could help that problem with smarter scheduling on its own, grouping cross-country road trips and emphasizing division rivalries. But Manfred would rather blow it all up, or at least bring the idea to the upcoming bargaining table with the players' union, attempting to curry favor with ideas as better for player well-being, while ignoring what it might mean to longtime fans who thrive on those rivalries, who grew up with those adversaries, who invested those emotions. 'I don't like any of that,' Hall of Famer Jim Kaat agreed. 'What's the World Series going to be like without the competition of the two leagues?' Kaat already is on record about baseball So, apparently, is the link to the past. 'You can see that incrementally they've been working toward this. I've heard about it for years,' Leavy said. 'I understand, but there's got to be a way to balance the needs of growth and modernity without erasing the game's essential self.' Advertisement Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Panthers Defenseman Invited To Team USA's Olympic Orientation Camp
Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones has been invited to Team USA's Olympic orientation camp. The camp, scheduled for Aug. 26 and 27, is mainly for administrative and team-building purposes and does not feature any formal on-ice activity or public component. Earlier in August, Team Canada unveiled their orientation camp roster, which was headlined by five Panthers players: Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe. Jones is one of the newest Panthers, but his impressive track record goes beyond his time in Florida. Jones was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, and has represented Team USA at the U-17s, U-18s, World Junior Championship and the World Championship. Jones won gold at the U-18s twice, the World Juniors once, while bringing home a silver medal at the U-17s and bronze at the World Championship. Jones is a minute muncher with good offensive instincts. He's a strong skater for a defenseman with a 6-foot-4 frame, but earning a spot on the American roster will be a challenge. The 30-year-old was left off the 4 Nations Face-Off roster and is one of the 16 defensemen invited to the orientation camp. The Americans don't lack talented offensive defenders, but require shutdown blueliners, something Jones could develop into this season.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Know Your Enemy, Sabres Pacific Edition: Is Buffalo Better Than Rebuilding Flames?
The Buffalo Sabres were a major disappointment last season, and the 13 other seasons before that which ended without any Stanley Cup playoff action. The Sabres have been one of the NHL's worst teams, and they're now in a position where they desperately need to get into the post-season. Fans are exhausted with all the losing, and they won't be going on much longer as the same group if they miss the playoffs again next year.
