Sidney Crosby’s wrist shot is a thing of beauty (Video)

Sidney Crosby was front and center in Pittsburgh’s throttling of the Hurricanes, and his second goal was a thing of beauty.

The Penguins got off to a slow start this season, and much of that was because of Crosby’s offensive struggles. For a team that went out and acquired Phil Kessel in the off-season, a lot was expected of them on the goalscoring front. Yet he reminded the Hurricanes that, despite a down year, he’s still one of the most dangerous players in the game:

"When Sid’s on, Sid’s really on. #CARvsPIT https://t.co/qRzyw5POZF— NHL (@NHL) January 17, 2016"

That goal was his second of the game for his 14th on the year and, all of a sudden, Crosby trails Malkin by just 5 points for the team lead in scoring. He has a long way to go if he wants to catch Kane for the scoring lead, but when Crosby’s wrister looks like that again, it means his confidence is back.

The Penguins will need Crosby to start scoring like this on a regular basis. They are currently on the outside looking in on a playoff spot, and missing it would make it the first time in the Crosby-Malkin era that they haven’t qualified for the postseason.

There’s no question that when the Penguins’ scorers are on, they are a very dangerous team but they’ve looked inept too many times. They’ve picked up their play ever since firing Mike Johnston, but they need to keep it up if they want to avoid another coach getting fired at season’s end, which would inevitably happen if they missed the playoffs.