A thousand times over for Crosby
It didn’t take long for teammates to know what he is all about
No longer a kid, he hits a milestone
Ryan Malone saw the 18-year-old’s explosive skating and acceleration, the way he could change gears, punch it into overdrive and pull away from the pack. Rico Fata marveled at his endless energy, “special” mental toughness and the way he demanded the best from his teammates without even saying a word.
Mark Recchi recognized a work ethic and a skill level that few could match.
And then there were the tree limbs the kid already had for legs, a monstrous lower body that could make the best of tailors snap up from slumber in terror.
“We called him ‘The Creature’ for a reason,” Rob Scuderi said with a chuckle.
Their reasons for doing so may differ, but those who were around Sidney Crosby in his rookie year all immediately recognized that he was a transcendent talent, the type of player and person who would change everything for the Penguins.
“You just knew,” Ed Olczyk said, “the team was going to be in a really good place. He was the complete package and it was just going to be a matter of time.”
That time, where has it gone? Sid is no longer a kid. Fifteen years later, at age 33, Crosby is set to play his 1,000th career game Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
Looking back Friday at his first NHL game and a bunch of memories in between, Crosby said he would tell the 18year-old version of himself to be patient.
“And just enjoy it as much as you can,” Crosby said. “Because it goes fast.”
The captain then reaffirmed his commitment to finishing his career in Pittsburgh and said he hopes to keep playing in the NHL as long as they’ll let him.
“I love it as much as I did Game 1,” he said after practicing in Cranberry.
Before Game 1,000, let’s skate down memory lane and revisit Crosby’s rookie season and the memorable night in New Jersey where it all began.
‘This kid’s got it’
On July 22, 2005, the same day that a year-long NHL lockout officially and mercifully ended, the ping-pong balls miraculously bounced Pittsburgh’s way.
“All of the sudden that summer, we win the lottery,” said Olczyk, who was the coach in Crosby’s rookie year. “And so we go sign Ziggy Palffy and Jocelyn Thibault and Sergei Gonchar and Mark Recchi and John LeClair. And Mario [Lemieux] came back. We went from a complete rebuild to going all-in. That was it.”
In late summer, when players started trickling into Pittsburgh to skate in informal team workouts, Penguins veterans witnessed Crosby for the first time.
After the players skated through drills for 45 minutes, they would scrimmage. Fata said it got so “super competitive” they had to start to bring in referees.
“Prior to that, they weren’t as intense. I’m telling you that right now,” said the retired winger.
Afterward, Crosby did a full off-ice workout, Fata recalled. Crosby would grab lunch somewhere then return to the rink in the afternoon to fire more pucks.
“I just thought, ‘This kid’s got it.’ He was built from another mold,” Fata said.
Once training camp and the preseason began, it was obvious to Lemieux, Recchi and the other vets that Crosby would be a difference-maker right away.
Recchi vividly remembers a preseason game in Wilkes-Barre when Crosby knifed through the other team. It was around that time that a future Hall of Famer with 577 career goals decided it would be best if he stayed out of the kid’s way.
“It was just incredible. We were in awe of him,” Recchi said. “I played with Mario when he was young. Obviously, two very different players. But at the same time, you just see how special they are. That’s what our conversations were like.”
It wasn’t just his skating, his puck skills and his drive. Teammates young and old were blown away by his humility and his desire to just be one of the guys.
When Crosby was 14, The Hockey News dubbed him “The Next One” on its cover. Three years later, as his first game neared, the buzz reached a fever pitch.
“I used to sit next to him in the locker room and literally every day there were 10 reporters in his face,” Malone said. “For a young kid to come in and show that much maturity and determination, it says a lot about the type of person he is.”
First impressions
After months of anticipation, Crosby made his NHL debut Oct. 5, 2005 against goalie Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils at Continental Airlines Arena.
Fata couldn’t believe what he was seeing when the Penguins took the ice.
“New Jersey had very little fans. It was a poor atmosphere, to be honest with you. But we packed the arena that night,” he said. “They came to see Sid the Kid.”
Crosby already had them out of their seats in his first shift of the game.
He accelerated out of the left corner toward Brodeur, the puck on his backhand. He loaded up and let one go. Over the next 15 years, that backhand would be a dangerous weapon. But the legendary goalie fought off that one.
Back on the bench and soaking in the moment, Crosby flashed his boyish grin.
“It was the first time in my life I didn’t care that I didn’t score,” he told NHL.com years later. “I was like, ‘Man, Marty Brodeur just stopped me. Life’s good.’”
Brodeur was sensational all night. He made 36 saves, three of them on Crosby, and helped the Devils kill off 10 of 11 power plays for the Penguins. Zach Parise scored in his Devils debut and New Jersey made it a 4-0 game early in the third.
On a power play, LeClair chipped the puck down the right wall then charged in to retrieve it. Crosby followed him in. With quick hands and exceptional edgework, Crosby plucked the puck out of a scrum and found Recchi on the doorstep.
“It was pretty neat to be a part of a
milestone goal like that,” Recchi said.
Crosby’s final stat line in the 51 loss was nothing special. Crosby spent much of that game as the second-line center behind Lemieux. Playing 15 minutes and 50 seconds, he had that assist, was a minus-2 and won 6 of 16 faceoffs.
But Crosby left a lasting impression on his teammates, both with the flashes of brilliance he showed during the game and his attitude after the final buzzer.
“Looking back, he was [ticked off] we lost,” Malone recalled. “And I remember at the end of the year, after we missed the playoffs, how upset he was. He showed right from the get-go that determination, that it was Stanley Cup or bust.”
Look at him now
After that season started with such high expectations, the Penguins finished 43 points out of first place. But Crosby, on an individual level, dazzled. He surged down the stretch with seven goals and 15 assists in the final 10 games. When he hit the 100-point mark April 17, a crowd of 17,084 at Civic Arena went bonkers.
“I was going for 100 points and I think we were in 29th place. Didn’t really have a reason to have an atmosphere like that,” he said. “But everyone came out and was so supportive. You would have thought it was a playoff game that night.”
Crosby couldn’t catch Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, the Calder Trophy winner, in the scoring race that year. But Crosby soon beat him to the Stanley Cup.
“He just had that passion and that competitiveness,” Malone said. “You see that in all the bigtime guys. Look at [Tom] Brady. Look at [Michael] Jordan. Kobe [Bryant]. All those guys had that competitiveness. It was always all on the line.”
Crosby was at the peak of his powers a decade ago when lingering concussion and neck injuries threatened to cut his career short before he turned 25.
He rejoined the lineup for good in 2012 and led Pittsburgh to two more titles.
“When he was coming back, it was still a little touch and go,” Scuderi said. “You look back at it as a footnote now, but it could have went the other way.”
Entering his 1,000th game, he has 468 goals and 808 assists. He has won the Hart Trophy twice in addition to two scoring titles. His name is engraved on the Stanley Cup three times. He also has two gold medals, with his “Golden Goal” in 2010 being one of the most memorable Olympic moments of the past 100 years.
His rookie-year teammates aren’t surprised that Crosby somehow lived up to the hype. But that doesn’t mean they don’t find what he has done to be incredible.
“I can’t imagine it was easy to come in as a young player and have that heavy pressure on you before you’ve played a single game,” Scuderi said. “The fact that he’s turned out to have the career he’s had — and it’s not over yet — is amazing considering the expectations would certainly weigh down a lot of other guys.”