Penguins Ride the Sid ‘n’ Ned Train to 4-1 Victory over Blackhawks

Seven seconds into last night’s must-have 4-1 victory over the Blackhawks, Sidney Crosby ran towering 22-year-old defenseman Alex Vlasic into the end boards. Eight seconds later he tipped Marcus Pettersson’s long-range shot past Hawks goalie Arvid Söderblom to stake his team to a lead right out of the chute.

Does anyone lead by example better than Sid? I’ll go a step further. Is there a better player in any professional sport at age 36 than our captain?

I think not.

Thus inspired, the Penguins stretched their advantage to a pair 12 minutes later, thanks in no small part to a bit of largesse from Connor Bedard. Playing in his first game in five weeks after suffering a broken jaw, the Hawks’…