Just 18, Crosby shows he has what it takes
Robert Dvorchak | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | November 24, 2005
Ed Johnston played on the same Boston Bruins team as Bobby Orr. He coached Wayne Gretzky in the World Cup. And as an executive with the Penguins, he drafted Mario Lemieux.
So when asked for his perspective on hockey wunderkind Sidney Crosby, his face lit up like a scoreboard.
"Absolutely amazing," Johnston said at a recent Penguins practice. "He's been a breath of fresh air for the league and for us. He's one of those special kids that come along every 10 years or so."
Less than two months into his National Hockey League career, not even four months beyond his 18th birthday, Crosby isn't the biggest sports story in Pittsburgh, which is obsessed with the Steelers and football.
But he's considered a national treasure in his native Canada, where he dominates the sports highlights and is routinely a front page story in the country that invented the game.
Not only does he lead the Penguins on the scoresheet with 11 goals and 16 assists for 27 points, he tops all NHL rookies in scoring and was the rookie of the month for October. Home fans chanted "Cros-bee, Cros-bee" when he scored his first NHL goal, against the Bruins on Oct. 8. Squealing young ladies frequently hold up posters asking him for dates.
He played well just off Broadway, earning No. 1 star honors in his first game at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 7. He beat the Canadiens, the dream team of his boyhood, with a dream goal in a shoot-out following overtime that all of Canada seemed to witness on Nov. 10. He got the better of the head-to-head matchup on Tuesday against Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, a premier talent in his own right who was the top NHL pick in 2004.
But along with the acclaim and hype that comes with having your every word and every shift scrutinized, the gifted also face their own lofty challenges. In Crosby's case it goes beyond the fact that he required the help of a buddy to download music on his iPod.
Forget the chants of "overrated" that echoed through the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey arena on opening night in early October. In a game last week in Philadelphia against the Flyers, he required four stitches to close a gash in his lip and had two of his teeth chipped by the stickwork of ornery defenseman Derian Hatcher, only to have the Flyers and the Philadelphia media pack allege that he was diving, or faking to get a penalty call. In hockey terms, that translates into being called soft.
Crosby was penalized in that game for unsportsmanlike conduct after questioning a no-call. But having lost parts of his choppers and having tasted his own blood, he responded by contributing to all three of the Penguins goals, including the game-winner in overtime. One sure way to become a local legend is to slay an adversary in a place where the Penguins had won just twice since the end of the 1993-94 season.
"If there were any doubts about him, they were eliminated right then and there," said Johnston, who currently serves as the team's assistant general manager. "He grew up by leaps and bounds and earned a large measure of respect. He's got that grittiness about him that makes him a special player.
"You're not going to intimidate this kid. He's not going to back off," he added. "There are players like that. When we played against Henri Richard or Frank Mahovlich, the word in our meetings was leave those guys alone. Ask them how their families are doing, but don't wake them up. If you tick them off, they become even better players. Boy, did [Crosby] respond."
That's the thing about Crosby, who can give interviews in French and English. Whenever he's mentioned, names from the Who's Who of Hockey history drift into the conversation. He sees the ice like Gretzky, the Great One, who anointed him The Next One. He makes plays like Lemieux, who began his NHL career three years before Crosby was born and is now his owner, captain, teammate and housemate. The diving reference aside, the prodigy who barely has enough chin stubble to challenge a razor accepts the flattery as a compliment, but never lets it get to his head.
"He doesn't want to be the next Gretzky or the next Mario. He wants to be Sidney Crosby," said his father, Troy, once a goal-tending prospect in the Montreal system. "He wants to be the best player he can be. He's comfortable with who he is."
Just who is that?
Although he's been touted as the player to save the NHL or the impetus the Penguins say they need to get a new building to save the franchise, it's necessary to remember that Crosby is still 18 and is so well-grounded that he wouldn't sign a Penguins jersey with his No. 87 on it until he was officially told he made the team.
"Most important are the expectations I have for myself," Crosby said. "That's the pressure I feel the most, the pressure I put on myself. I expect my best every time I go on the ice. I'm competitive. I want to win. I try to put in an honest day's work every time I come to the rink. That's all you can do. I don't try to be anything I'm not. That's the bottom line."
Those who frequent the team's practices note that Crosby is routinely one of the last players to leave the ice. He'll linger with his mates, passing the puck while skating in circles or engaging in an impromptu game of two-on-two, a rink rat reluctant to shed his skates and gear.
"I love to be at the rink with my teammates. It's a fun game. This is why we play, to enjoy this and compete," he said. "I don't know if anyone's ever made to [play hockey], but I have a passion for it. For me, it's not work to stay, I just enjoy doing that. Some days, it's easier to stay than others, but for the most part, it's all play out there."
Eddie Olyczyk, the team's coach, says the young man sits in on all the strategy sessions and is quite coachable. But even as he constantly reminds reporters that the grind of an NHL schedule means the skills won't be there every night, he's been as impressed as anybody with how quickly Crosby is adapting to playing against the world's greatest hockey talent.
"Nothing surprises me," Olczyk said. "The excitement level when he's on the ice is something that brings people out of their seats, and brings the intensity level of our team to another level."
And raising the level of play requires a tenacity not often associated with one who sets up plays with dazzling backhand passes, pops the water bottle atop the goal net with backhand shots or draws as many as six penalties a game, as he did in a loss on Oct. 25 to the Florida Panthers.
"You see it away from puck with the extracurricular stuff that goes on behind the play. That's where you see the battling, the grittiness, the want and the will. That's what separates the guys who are successful and the guys who are successful every once in a while," Olczyk said.
"He's given us an opportunity to turn this franchise around overnight," Lemieux said. "He's been our best player by far, day in and day out, and one of the best players in the league. And he's only 18."
