Crosby hopes Penguins 'family' stays together

PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby was the last player lingering in the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ locker room after they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime of Game 6 on Wednesday night, slowly changing out of his gear before facing another offseason of uncertainty. Was this the last game that the Penguins’ superstar core of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang will play together?

“It might be a little early for that. We’ll have a few days to digest everything and evaluate stuff,” Crosby said after the Flyers’ 1-0 win gave Philadelphia a 4-2 series victory in the Battle of Pennsylvania.

They have been teammates since 2006, when Crosby was in his second season. The Penguins won the Stanley Cup three times during their era. They are the longest-tenured trio of teammates in North American sports history, having surpassed the record held by Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees (17 seasons) three years ago.

Crosby led the Penguins with five points in six games against the Flyers. Malkin had two goals and an assist. Letang had two goals, both of them game winners.

Crosby, 38, is signed through next season. Letang, 39, is signed through 2028. But Malkin, 39, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Malkin has expressed a desire to stay with the Penguins next season and said last month that he and general manager Kyle Dubas would talk about his future after the playoffs.

Letang and Malkin were both unavailable to the media after Game 6. Crosby, standing near Malkin’s empty stall, said it was “probably hard to put into words” what they’ve meant to him as teammates.

“Honestly, it’s something that we’ve probably just gotten used to, but I think they’re like family. I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Crosby said. “We’ve had some great wins, some tough losses like this. Ultimately, though, that’s a long time that we’ve played together. I’m so appreciative for the opportunity to be able to play with them as long as we have. Hopefully we can keep going.”

Dan Muse had watched Crosby, Malkin and Letang from afar before becoming their coach this season.

“You hear how people talk about all three of these guys and then you get to see it firsthand and it’s special. I mean, to be doing what they’ve been doing for this long, at such a high level, they just continue to elevate and find different levels,” Muse said.

Muse said that having this trio be on the same team for 20 seasons is an underrated accomplishment in sports.

“I honestly don’t think the three of them get enough credit for the fact that they’ve been doing it together for this long,” he said. “It hasn’t happened before in sports in North America, and there’s a reason for it, because it’s ridiculously hard and it’s so uncommon and it takes special people to be able to do it.”

The Penguins rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to push the Flyers to a sixth game back in Philadelphia. The game ended up becoming a brilliant goaltending duel between Pittsburgh’s Arturs Silovs (31 saves) and Philadelphia’s Dan Vladar (42 saves) until Flyers defenseman Cam York snuck a shot through Silovs at 17:32 of overtime for the game winner.

It was the first playoff series win for the Flyers since 2020. Philadelphia moves on to face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018. This was the Penguins’ first appearance in the playoffs since 2022, in a season when many pundits didn’t have Pittsburgh making the postseason cut in preseason predictions.

“I think we understand the expectations coming in, that sort of thing. I don’t think that takes away this sting from this right now,” Crosby said. “But I think when we have time to look back in the season, there’s a lot of things to like. That’s probably the reality of it.”