It can’t for a player who is relentlessly searching for an edge, who is still almost impossible to separate from the puck, whose innate ability to see things before they happen remains intact even as the legs that have carried the Penguins to three championships don’t create the blur they once did. “I think you’ve got to continue to learn.”Ī process that never stops. “It’s hard not to pick up on things or try to learn,” he said. He doesn’t study hockey as much as he absorbs it. The smartest player of his generation can’t help himself. “It’s ‘Hey, did you see that Colorado play on the power play? That’s a really nice play, we should think about that,’” Sullivan said.Ĭrosby sheepishly points out that he doesn’t watch hockey “every single night” but when the remote is in his hand it inevitably finds a way to a game. There will be times when Sullivan will be at home during a rare night off during the season when his phone will light up with a text message from his longtime captain. “He’s an ultra talent without a doubt but he has an appetite for the game that’s been unmatched by anyone I’ve been around.”Īn appetite that doesn’t have an off switch. “I don’t think it’s by accident he’s as good as he is,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. While the league has become increasingly littered with “Next Sidney Crosbys,” the 1.0 version remains very much intent on proving the fire burns just as bright entering his 19th season as it did in his first. 87 did on the ice.ĭon’t let the small but noticeable flecks of gray that dot Crosby’s hair fool you. Maybe someone other prodigy drawn to the game because of something No. That at one point he’ll hand the baton of being the most recognizable active player in the sport he’s helped redefine to someone else. That he has more hockey behind him than in front of him. Yes, the now 36-year-old understands he’s not the wunderkind he once was. Or at least, Crosby can, though the two-time Hart Trophy winner and future Hall of Famer prefers not to spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror. … I think, at this point, he’s just ready to finally start and get all of that over with. “He’s been dealing with the expectations for a while now. “I think he’s a guy that’s more than ready at this point,” Crosby said. 1 just weeks before his 18th birthday - will find himself in over the next six months and quite possibly the next 16 years … or more. He will see a mentor well-versed in the unique crucible Bedard - born two weeks before Crosby arrived in Pittsburgh and himself chosen No. So when Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard skates onto the PPG Paints Arena ice on tonight for the NHL season-opener and sees Crosby on the other side, he won’t just see the player he grew up idolizing. All while serving as the face of the franchise and the league he helped revitalize one rush, one pass, one goal, one point - 1,502 and counting - at a time. A regional transformation that’s made western Pennsylvania a hockey hotbed. Over the better part of the last two decades, Crosby has delivered it. It can be a lot for a teenager to handle, no matter how talented, how driven, how focused they are.Ĭrosby was that teenager literally half a lifetime ago when the Pittsburgh Penguins selected “Sid the Kid” first overall in the summer of 2005, weeks before his 18th birthday.Īll the franchise and the city asked of him was everything. Sidney Crosby knows a little - OK, maybe more than a little - about being hockey’s next big thing.
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