Same goes for Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz and James Neal. Three-for-17 on the power play, with a couple shorthanded goals-against mixed in, isn't good enough, either; Pittsburgh had the second-best record in the Eastern Conference largely because of those guys and that power play.

MORE: Matt Cooke is back in the crosshairs

Crosby is going to win the MVP, and he’ll deserve it not just because he won the scoring title, but because he accounted for a huge part of Pittsburgh’s offense, either scoring or getting the first assist on 28 percent of their 5-on-5 goals.

That's true of Malkin, Kunitz, Neal and Jussi Jokinen, too — Pittsburgh, generally speaking, has had two lines capable of reliably producing points and sustaining possession at even strength. Overall, all five of those guys had 21 goals or more. Among the rest of Pittsburgh's forwards, only Brandon Sutter (13) had more than five.

So, the fact that Pittsburgh has a 2-1 series lead over the Blue Jackets is either a positive sign for them, or a precursor to one of of the more ironic playoff exits in a while.

Seriously: Jokinen, with two, has Pittsburgh's only top-six goals. Pittsburgh is winning the five-on-five battle. Marc-Andre Fleury is having a decent enough series (.930 even-strength save percentage, .899 overall). Up is down! Down is up!

"I think for a good 45 minutes, that was our best hockey," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said after his team's 4-3 Game 3 win on Monday. "We had several power-play chances in the first and a couple throughout the game that we didn't capitalize on, but even then we stayed the course on the power play, gained momentum, stayed focus, continued to get shots and opportunities and didn't capitalize.

"But I think our experience and confidence in just continuing to play the right way, I think I saw for 45-plus minutes in this game.

None of this is to say that Pittsburgh, as a whole, has played all that well. A slow start doomed them once, and nearly twice more. Their special teams have not been productive. There have been high-profile, obvious defensive breakdowns. That counts. But for all intents and purposes, they're playing as strong a puck-possession game as they have for several months — and that counts, too.

The best way of measuring that: percentage of unblocked even-strength shot attempts taken when the game is within one goal or tied in the third period (Fenwick Close). In that scenario, Pittsburgh has gone 55.6 percent, 52.3 percent and 57.1 percent in their first three games for a total of 54.1 percent, sixth in the postseason.

That's not world-beating, but it represents an uptick from 50.2 percent in the regular season. That was 16th in the league and behind, naturally, the Blue Jackets (50.8 percent, 12th overall). It's also the second time Pittsburgh has won the possession battle in three straight games since Christmas. The other such instance: three games starting on April 3 (via Extra Skater).



The biggest reason for that: elite puck-possession numbers from the top six and improved numbers from bottom-six guys like Lee Stempniak (53.8 Fenwick Close, after a 48.4 percent regular season), Joe Vitale (53.1 percent after 46.5) and Craig Adams (55.6 percent after 43.1).

Factor in the overall number with other specific instances — outshooting the Blue Jackets 27-13 and outscoring them 4-1 in Game 3's last 57 minutes; Fleury's strong play; and a lack of production from top players that seems unlikely to continue — and it should be easy for Pittsburgh to feel better about itself than the final scores have indicated.