Crosby Reveals His Nickname

Tuesday, October 04, 2005
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Every day, Sidney Crosby patiently and politely sits through an interview session. There often are several notebooks, microphones and television cameras leaning in to capture his every word. There are reporters who are specifically assigned to chronicle the every move of the Penguins' popular rookie center.

You would think that after nearly three weeks of training camp, most of Crosby's thoughts, idiosyncrasies and stories would have been unearthed.
But yesterday, with talk turning to Crosby's NHL regular-season debut tomorrow night in New Jersey, an interesting bit of trivia bubbled to the surface.
Crosby brought a nickname with him to the big leagues. It's not Sid the Kid or The Next One.
It's ... Darryl?

"Not too many guys know about it now, but when I was in junior, my first exhibition game I got eight points, and [Hall of Famer] Darryl Sittler got 10 in the NHL [in a game in 1976], so they just said 'Darryl' and it kind of stuck the last couple of years," Crosby said.
"That's how nicknames come, in funny ways like that."

Some of Crosby's teammates noticed "Darryl" on the cuff of his hockey gloves, a space often used for players' nicknames. Now a few of them refer to Crosby that way.
Other teammates use more glowing terms for the 18-year-old selected first overall in the 2005 draft after the Penguins won the pick in a lottery.

Center/captain/owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux, for instance, believes Crosby has lived up to his billing.

"Yeah, even more," Lemieux said. "I knew he was a great player, but he just turned 18. If you look at the game [Sunday] night, he was one of the best players on the ice, making plays, skating, handling the puck."

In that game, a 7-1 win against Washington in the Penguins' final preseason game, Crosby had an assist, in addition to clanging a shot off the post, but throughout the game he displayed speed, agility and good positioning.

"That was the most comfortable I felt out there, the skating and reacting," said Crosby, who had one goal and three assists in five exhibition games.

Now it's time to see if that translates into games that count.

Lemieux, a first-round pick in 1984 who was heralded as the next great player, doesn't have a hard time recalling his first NHL game. Playing in Boston Garden, he got a loose puck on his first shift, beat defenseman Raymond Bourque, closed in on goaltender Pete Peeters and scored.
"That took a lot of pressure off me and gave me a lot of confidence to start my career," Lemieux said. "Hopefully, he can do the same."

Crosby is well aware of Lemieux's debut, even though he wasn't born at the time.
"I'm not going to try to do that on my first shift," he said, smiling. "If it comes, it comes. But I'm not going to be rattled the rest of the game if it doesn't happen."

Nothing much seems to rattle Crosby, who has settled in on a line between veteran wingers Mark Recchi and John LeClair, both on the ice and in the locker room, where yesterday the temporary white tape with black marker names at each stall used during camp had been replaced with more permanent black placards with silver names.
"He's just a really down-to-earth guy," Lemieux said of Crosby.
No matter what you call him.

Coach Eddie Olczyk was vaguely aware of the Darryl nickname.
"Yeah, but I don't know him as that," the coach said.
"I like Bing."

(Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.)