Report: Sullivan explains Crosby's crucial influence on the Pens

When it comes to how impactful Sidney Crosby is on the Pittsburgh Penguins, one could probably write an entire novel.

At the end of the day, head coach Mike Sullivan summarizes his impact on the team in a few short sentences.

Crosby has been riding a hot streak as of late - he has 5 straight multi-point games. Is it a coincidence that the Penguins won all 5 of those games? Sure, the coach will point to the contributions of players such as Patric Hornqvist and those on the bottom 6 who've finally put some pucks in the net.

But the biggest factor has been and will always be Sidney Crosby when it comes to the success of this team. It's hard to be inspired to play your best when Crosby is amassing 12 points in his last 5 games, and 16 in his last 9.

The Penguins are 6-3-1 in their last 10 after and have shored up their awful goals differential from earlier in the season. It's still not good - at -8, they still have a ways to go, but they've closed the gap considerably as of late - and it took a team effort, kickstarted by the resurgence of Crosby in the last 10 games or so.