Tuesday’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets did not start out looking so good for Pittsburgh. After Sidney Crosby opened the scoring a little after four minutes into the first period, the Penguins fell behind with Columbus heading into the locker room at the first intermission with a 2-1 lead. Although Pittsburgh was able to draw level in the second, it didn’t seem like they were going to have their way with their division rivals from Ohio. Indeed, the Blue Jackets did not give up and as late as 14 minutes into the third period the game was still close at 3-3.

One thing the Columbus Blue Jackets don’t have now (and really have never had) is a guy who can and will put the team on his back, time and time again, and push them through to victory. They’ve had guys who can score goals, but they have not had leaders, and they certainly don’t have anyone like that right now. Conversely, the Penguins have at least two or three players who…I don’t want to say the team will turn to them and expect them to do what needs to be done to bring the team a win, they’ll just do it. On Tuesday, once again it was Sidney Crosby who stepped up and reminded everyone that he is still one of the best players in the League.

He had the opening goal – another one from the down-low sharp angle that is tricky to score from – and then at 14:28 of the third period he took a slap pass from the point from Erik Karlsson and deflected it b-e-a-utifully into the goal behind Elvis Merzlikins. If you haven’t seen that goal, please go look at it yourself, but just how quickly that whole play developed into a goal really goes to show you how good Crosby is; his awareness and hand-eye coordination continues to be unreal. Crosby added an empty-netter to notch his 13th career hat trick, and once again Sid brought the team a victory that looked uncertain until his second goal of the game. It’s guys like him that are the key difference between contenders and pretenders. Prior to Tuesday Columbus might have had aspirations to hang around in the Metropolitan Division race, but now they’re occupying the spot Pittsburgh was in just a week or so ago, and they can keep it for all I care.

As for the Penguins, they are now on a five-game winning streak and they are (as of this writing) back up to fourth in the division with a critical stretch of games ahead. From tonight until the end of the month they play seven games, six of which are against teams definitely in the playoff race (Nashville is closer to the San Jose Sharks than they are a playoff spot), five against Eastern Conference foes, three against Metropolitan Division rivals, and two against division leaders. From glancing at the rest of the schedule it looks like the longest stretch of games against serious competition, so this is a critical opportunity for Pittsburgh to prove it is serious as well.

Tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils might not be as difficult as it initially appeared, depending on who is available to play. The Devils are currently fifth in the Metro Division and heading into tonight’s contest with a three-game losing streak. They started out the season already without young wingers Nolan Foote and Brian Halonen as well as goaltender Nico Daws, and over the past three weeks they’ve also lost captain Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes to injury. While Hughes, a budding superstar, could be back in the lineup as soon as tonight, Hischier is on injured reserve so he won’t be back for at least another couple of games. Hischier is one of the best young two-way players in the League, and his absence in the defensive end in particular may be a big reason they’re struggling in the early going.

On a related topic, perhaps New Jersey’s bigger problem is that their goaltending has not been nearly good enough; after finishing last season with the eleventh-best save percentage in the NHL, thus far this season the Devils have the third-worst save percentage and the sixth-most goal allowed in the League. They have the same tandem of Vitek Vaneck and Akira Schmid, but neither goaltender is stepping up to help prevent New Jersey from being scored on. As we know, poor goaltending can sink a team more than just about any other aspect of a team, and it’s the one thing right now that the Devils need to be better. For a team that was expected in the preseason to contend for the Metropolitan Division lead, their goaltending is one of the biggest obstacles that might prevent them from getting to that point.