Mark Madden: Penguins can always count on Sidney Crosby to bounce back

Let’s celebrate the recent snowfall with refreshing sports notes. No two are identical!

• Sidney Crosby played one of the worst games of his career in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-2 home loss to Toronto on Tuesday. He was on the ice for all five Maple Leafs goals. But Crosby regrouped in a big way Thursday, posting two goals and two assists in a 6-4 win at Minnesota. He took over. The captain holds himself accountable first. You can always count on him to bounce back.

• You can’t rely on the Penguins’ goaltending. Tristan Jarry has been no better than meh and often worse. Instead of stealing the odd game, Jarry quickly gives back leads. Bad goals aren’t uncommon. Not every goal is questionable, but Jarry doesn’t make big saves. His numbers reflect: 3.60 goals-against average, .895 save percentage. He has five wins and five losses. Awful stats, .500 record and Jarry’s technique is haphazard.

• Penguins coach Mike Sullivan started Casey DeSmith in three of four games recently, perhaps looking to challenge Jarry. That won’t work. DeSmith is a backup, period. Jarry knows that and knows Sullivan won’t make DeSmith the No. 1 goalie.

• Jarry is in a contract year, but his poor play doesn’t mean he won’t get re-upped. GM Ron Hextall extended Kasperi Kapanen when it was obviously the wrong move.

• Crosby has scored the first goal of the game four times this season and 100 times in his career. Nobody shows up more ready to play.

• Winger Jason Zucker is healthy and, so far this season, exactly the player the Penguins hoped he would be when they traded for him in 2020. He adds spark, battles, gets enough points and energizes his center, Evgeni Malkin. That last contribution is huge.

• The Penguins’ victory at Minnesota on Thursday was needed. But it still featured a lot of the same old nonsense. Like seeing a 2-0 lead become a 2-2 tie in 12 seconds.

• Circle Dec. 30 on your calendar. That’s when the Penguins host New Jersey in the first meeting of those teams this season. The Devils are 14-3 and have won 11 straight. The Penguins continue to rely on speed. The Devils are much faster. Wake-up call pending.

• Why isn’t it Maple Leaves?

• Cincinnati is favored by four at Acrisure Stadium, but don’t rule out the Steelers pulling the upset. Despite rebuilding almost their entire offensive line in the offseason, the Bengals have allowed 32 sacks. It’s easy to see T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith running wild. The Steelers sacked Joe Burrow seven times in their Week 1 win at Cincinnati. The Bengals are 5-4, 0-3 in AFC North play. Their Super Bowl hangover continues.

• I’m still picking Cincinnati. The Steelers’ home win over New Orleans this past Sunday didn’t relaunch their season. One bad team beat another bad team in a bad game.

• Damontae Kazee’s impressive performance at safety in the victory over New Orleans shows that trading for Minkah Fitzpatrick and signing him to a four-year, $73.6 million was an unneeded luxury. Kazee could do most of what Fitzpatrick does at a fraction of the price, and that money could be spent on linemen. A subpar team needs linemen more than safeties. Fitzpatrick isn’t Troy Polamalu.

• When is Diontae Johnson going to catch a touchdown? Did the Steelers give Johnson $36.71 million over two years to catch zero touchdowns?

• Moving the Cleveland-Buffalo game from outdoors at Buffalo to indoors at Detroit due to threat of massive snow is the right move. The romance of outdoor football duly noted, I’d rather watch a legit football game than an obstacle course navigated in a blizzard.

• There seems to be little buzz in the United States for the Qatar World Cup. Perhaps that’s because it’s an obvious example of sports-washing via an oppressive regime buying favor with a corrupt governing body. Or because it’s not in the summer, as is traditional. Or because we’ve figured out that the U.S. has zero chance of winning. Now that Europe’s top leagues are on TV in America, we see those games and realize that our players aren’t at that level.

• The stadiums were built by slave labor. Security is already menacing and censoring the media. The Qatar World Cup feels like the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It feels like the event shouldn’t be there. Like something disastrous could happen.

• I’ve written an entire column without mentioning Kenny Pickett. I should get the Yinzer version of a Pulitzer Prize.