Sidney Crosby

<h2 data-rte-spaces-before="1" data-rte-spaces-after="1"> The Mike Johnston Dark Times </h2>
<p data-rte-fromparser="true">Mike Johnston's tenure in Pittsburgh coincided with the worst stretch of Sid's career. He'd never, during all his years in the League, played as poorly as he did under Mike Johnston. In 2012-13, Sid went from a 1.56 PPG to 1.30 in 2013-14. This was a pretty steep dive, but he was still dominating his peers (Ryan Getzlaf was the closest to him in points that year. He had 87 points. Sid had 104.). From 2013-14 to 2014-15, Sid’s PPG dipped again. This time it reached an all-time low of 1.09 PPG. He’d never been below 1.26 before. Not so incidentally, the Penguins as a team went from 242 goals total to 217, and their winning percentage dipped from .665 to .598, the lowest it had been since the 2005-2006 season. This all coincided with Mike Johnston becoming coach. The Penguins just barely edged their way into the playoffs that season. They made it with literally the last game of the season, against Buffalo, which was ranked dead last at 30 that year.
</p><p data-rte-fromparser="true" data-rte-empty-lines-before="1">The Penguins were eliminated in five games by the Ranger during the first round of the playoffs that year. 
</p><p data-rte-fromparser="true" data-rte-empty-lines-before="1">Sid called up the GM of Team Canada the same night they were eliminated; he was healthy and he wanted to play in the World Championship. Sid, who was made captain, had a good tournament, and won gold against Russia and Geno on 17 May 2017. He became the 26th member of the Triple Gold Clup (winner of a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold, and a World Championship gold), and the only player in history to do so while captaining each of his teams.
</p><p data-rte-fromparser="true" data-rte-empty-lines-before="1">Even coming off a World Championship, that summer Sid experienced something of a personal crisis. He was turning 28 and had a freak out about it.
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