HUMBLE CROSBY LIVING HIS CHILDHOOD DREAM

There’s a video on YouTube titled Lost Footage of a Young Sidney Crosby featuring a Jan. 2, 2002 report from The Hour on a 14-year-old wunderkind who was playing midget triple-A hockey in Dartmouth, N.S.

In the video, which has garnered more than one million views, the young Crosby says about his dream of one day playing in the NHL: “Getting up every day and doing something that you like to do and just like enjoying it and even getting paid to do something you love to do ... I can’t even imagine how amazing that would be.”

Fifteen years later, Crosby has become one of the greatest players in NHL history and has earned more than US$90 million.

So, has it been everything Crosby expected it would be when he was a 14-year-old with big dreams?

“Probably a little different than I expected,” Crosby said with a laugh following the Penguins’ morning skate Wednesday at the Bell Centre. “But ultimately, you get to do what you love every day and that’s the best part. And like I said then, you get paid for it, too, so that doesn’t hurt.”

Crosby was held off the scoresheet in the Penguins’ 4-1 win over the Canadiens Wednesday night, but the 29-year-old is leading the NHL with 27 goals and has 50 points in 38 games, ranking second in the points race behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid heading into Thursday’s schedule. McDavid had played nine more games than Crosby.

In the video, Crosby says he first realized how good he was when he scored 159 goals during his third year of novice hockey.

“I knew then that maybe I had a special scoring touch or something,” the 14-year-old Crosby said. “I think that was the point where I realized I should take this game seriously.”

Crosby didn’t take part in the Penguins’ morning skate, but made himself available to the media. While reporters were waiting beside his stall in the Penguins’ locker-room, Crosby was spotted just outside the door having a friendly conversation with Marcel Villemare, a Bell Centre security guard who worked with the Canadiens for 40 years.

On Thursday morning, Villemare shared a post-game story from Wednesday night about two youngsters in wheelchairs outside the Penguins’ lockerroom. The team had already packed up all the equipment, but when Crosby saw the youngsters, he went and got two sticks and autographed them for the kids.

The Canadiens’ Shea Weber has played with Crosby on Team Canada, going back to the 2005 world junior championship when they won gold, and against him in the NHL.

“He’s always been a special player. Very down to earth,” Weber said.