Penguins star Sidney Crosby’s workload is declining, even if he isn’t

Every week of the NHL season you can find a column here on everything that may not be making headlines yet — but probably should be.

Father Time comes for every NHL player, but the when and how of that inevitability can be difficult to predict.

Alex Ovechkin is a good example as the legendary goal scorer has had down seasons that seemed to foretell his decline, only to bounce back on multiple occasions. When he scored just 32 goals in 2010-11, it was suggested that even at 25 he could be in for a downturn because his rambunctious style simply wasn’t sustainable.

His age-31 campaign was also on the disappointing side by his standards (33 goals), and that seemed like a logical time for his scoring to slow. He scored 264 goals in 426 games over his next six seasons after 2016-17 — leading the NHL during that span.

Right now the 38-year-old isn’t looking great with two goals in 10 games, but another second wind isn’t out of the question.

This week’s “Under the Radar” begins with his longtime rival Sidney Crosby, whose age is showing in a different way.

Sid the Kid finally getting treated like Sid the Old Man

Crosby’s game has aged extremely gracefully in recent years as he remains a two-way force into his mid-30s. He may not reside at the top of the points leaderboards anymore, but he drives possession and creates offense at an impressive clip — and he’s still not a guy other centers love the idea of playing against.

His raw numbers in 2023-24 aren’t overwhelming, but it would be unfair to call them disappointing, either.

They certainly don’t provide any indication that Crosby is running out of steam, but the way he’s being deployed hints that his age is starting to become a consideration for coach Mike Sullivan.

In the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first 10 games, Crosby is averaging 18:47 of ice time per night, a significant downturn from last season’s 20:09. The…