Sunday, January 28, 2007
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Amid all the 17- and 18-year-olds who were projected as first-round draft picks that year, newly retired Wayne Gretzky picked out a 14-year-old working in their midst at a player agency camp.
"At that time, I said he was the best player on the ice," Gretzky, now coach of the Coyotes, said last night before Phoenix played the Penguins. "You could just see at that young an age that he could see the ice better than anybody else and played as hard as anybody else and played fearless.
"The next day I jumped on the ice with him. I wanted to be able to skate with him."
That player, of course, was Sidney Crosby, who has proved that Gretzky has a keen eye for talent. Crosby, 19, leads the NHL in points and is coming off an All-Star week in which he constantly was compared to Gretzky.
Last night, Gretzky and Crosby were at Jobing.com Arena, making the comparisons seem more vivid.
"That's the way sports is," Gretzky said. "When Bobby Orr came in, there were a lot of comparisons to Gordie Howe. And then Guy Lafleur came along and guys like Mike Bossy. And then I came along. Then, Mario [Lemieux] came along.
"The ironic thing about it is that time quickly goes by and, before you realize it, they're comparing some young guy to you. It won't be too much longer that it will go from comparing Sidney to me to comparing somebody to Sidney."
Not that Crosby is within sight of being over the hill. He hasn't reached his peak.
Gretzky said Crosby handles his role as a hockey ambassador and the pressure to perform well every night well.
"It's tough," he said. "Every city you go to, people want to see you and, more importantly, they want to see you play well."
Crosby often says there will never be another Gretzky, 46, who essentially rewrote the record book. He also downplayed their meeting last night.
"You can compare and all those things, but I think we all grew up watching him and idolizing him," Crosby said. "Any time you get to play against someone like that, whether it's on the ice or as a coach, it's special."
Old friends
A couple of hours before the game, Penguins winger Mark Recchi and Coyotes center Jeremy Roenick spent some time laughing and catching up -- two old friends, with the emphasis on old.
"We are a different era," Roenick, 37, said of his former Flyers teammate, Recchi, 38. "We came up together through the ranks. We started with minimal salaries, when they were five figures, not seven. We took our bumps and bruises along the way."
Recchi and Roenick began the season needing 16 goals for 500 in their career. Recchi reached that with two Friday night. Roenick went into the game last night needing 10.
"He gets played a little differently than I do," said Roenick, who isn't a top-line player these days like Recchi is.
"He beat me to it, but I'll get there eventually."
A mixed message
When Mark Cuban, the Mt. Lebanon native and billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, visited the Penguins locker room Friday night after their shootout win over the Stars, he talked up Crosby, calling him "a stud."
The white Penguins jersey he carried around and got signed, though, was a No. 71 Malkin.
Slap shots
Crosby on the milestone Friday night of equaling the team's win total (22) of last season: "Yeah, it is [good], but we don't want to look at that too closely. It's a different year, a different situation. As a stat, we can look at it move on, but we've definitely made some progress." ... The Penguins scratched defenseman Noah Welch and forward Chris Thorburn, giving winger Ronald Petrovicky a chance to play for the first time in seven games. ... Phoenix scratched centers Patrick Fischer and Kevyn Adams.
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