You can easily run out of superlatives when describing Sidney Crosby’s gold-medal winning goal. It was not a fluke, not a lucky shot against a talented Ryan Miller. The pass from Jarome Iginla wound up behind Crosby, so he had to reach back and pull it forward. Secondly, Miller, seeing that Crosby had his head down to find the puck, makes a quick decision to poke-check. This opens up a split-second opportunity for Crosby, who sees Miller’s move in his peripheral view and fires a shot, low, five-hole. At full speed, this was pure talent. The rest, as they say, is history.

The analysis has been pretty intense since that goal. Everything from comparison to Henderson’s goal in 1972, to how Canadians all held their pee.

I think one event that has been grossly overlooked by the media was the play that immediately preceded Crosby’s goal. At 12:43 of overtime, Jack Johnson (Los Angeles Kings) feeds Joe Pavelski (San Jose Sharks) as he streaks up to center ice.  Scott Niedermayer plays him well as Pavelski hits the hash marks in the Canadian zone and strips him of the puck. As Niedermayer goes around the net to turn back up ice, Pavelski forces a turnover and gets a really decent scoring chance against Luongo. He shoots high, glove side as Luongo goes down, and is able to stop the puck with his shoulder. Niedermayer recovers, and hits Crosby as he turns back up the ice. Watch the video — that could have been the end of the game right there and Niedermayer would have been the goat.

Amazing stuff.

Now if Crosby can only find his missing stick. I’ll bet Ovechkin took it.

Stay classy, Roberto Luongo.

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