How about Sidney Crosby’s return last night? There isn’t a more important player in the NHL than Crosby. We may be hasty in believing he will be healthy the rest of the season, but the sport had its star shine last night.

 

One of the great things about having Crosby as the most important player in the game is he plays in Pittsburgh. With so much emphasis in other sports, especially basketball, on the biggest stars coming from the biggest markets, it is amazing that Pittsburgh has the game’s greatest star. Would Crosby be bigger if he played in New York? This may be the only team sport where it doesn’t matter.

 

Moving on…

 

The streak of road games without a regulation loss is at 23. Milwaukee’s last loss in regulation was Jan. 13 at Manitoba. The franchise-best percentage on the road is .650, set in the championship season of 2003-04, when the team captures 52 of 80 points. This year, the Admirals road percentage is .929 as its captured 13 of 14 points.

 

We haven’t seen him play yet, but I can say I like the personality of Brodie Dupont. He was acquired from the New York Rangers this offseason for Andreas Thuresson. Dupont is coming back from an injury suffered this past summer. He asked me this morning what I thought about Crosby’s return. I told him four points wasn’t bad. He told me that he hopes I hold him to the same standard when he returns. He quickly backed off and said, “Well, four hits a night…guaranteed.”

 

Ryan Ellis’ agent is Bobby Orr. Let me write that again. Ryan Ellis’ agent is BOBBY ORR. In 1980, my cousin gave me some hockey magazines. I had one with Ray Bourque on the cover. It called Bourque “The ORR Apparent.”

 

Mark Van Guilder needs seven more games to reach 200 as a professional athlete.

 

Scott Ford has climbed to 10^th all-time in games played for the Admirals in the AHL. Kelsey Wilson set the AHL record last season with 294 career games played. With 219, Ford is one behind Kevin Klein, five behind Greg Classen and 15 behind Bryan Lundbohm. The top three are Wilson (294), Darren Haydar (293) and Nolan Yonkman (283).

 

Chris Mueller needs 13 points to become the 12^th Admirals player in the AHL era to reach 100 career points. He needs 28 points to become the all-time American-born leading scorer in the AHL for the Admirals (how’s that for detail, Elias?). Wyatt Smith tallied 114 points.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!