By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sidney Crosby with his first Art Ross Trophy yesterday in Ottawa.
Click photo for larger image.
To accept the Art Ross Trophy as the 2006-07 NHL scoring champion, Penguins center Sidney Crosby made an all too familiar trip.
It was back to Ottawa, where the Penguins lost in the first round of the playoffs, back to the city where the Senators are still playing after reaching the final, even back to the same hotel the Penguins used in April.
"I want to thank the NHL for bringing me back here," Crosby said yesterday with a slight laugh during a news luncheon in conjunction with the final round to award the statistics-based league trophies. "I have so many great memories being at this hotel and battling for the playoffs."
For Crosby, there's a link between winning the Art Ross after tallying 120 points on 36 goals, 84 assists, and the Penguins' experience with a young club participating in the team's first postseason appearance since 2001.
Winning something as prestigious as the Art Ross Trophy -- and he probably will add to that June 14 when the rest of the NHL awards are presented -- is one personal step, but there is a greater goal that calls to him.
"The next level, I'd say, you play to win the Stanley Cup," he said. "It's always nice to win NHL awards, and I don't want to take anything away from them because they're accomplishments and they're something I'm proud of, but when you look back on your career, you want to be able to say you won the Stanley Cup.
"I think that's something that drives me to play. Every summer and every season you work hard for it. Both would be nice, but a Stanley Cup is what you play for."
Crosby, 19, became the youngest athlete in North American team sports history to win a league scoring championship, and last week he became the youngest NHL captain when the Penguins awarded him the "C."
Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier, who yesterday was presented the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for leading the league with 52 goals, was named a captain when he was older than Crosby by a matter of weeks.
Recchi, Roberts talks continue
Penguins general manager Ray Shero hinted that negotiations to re-sign veteran wingers Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts might take some time.
"I don't want to put a time frame on it," Shero said. "We'll see where it goes the next little while."
Recchi and Roberts are unrestricted free agents but have expressed an interest in returning and would prefer to have things wrapped up before free agency begins July 1.
Therrien contract next?
Also on Shero's agenda is a possible extension for coach Michel Therrien, who is entering the final season of his contract.
"I chatted with him last week, and we'll continue to do that," Shero said. "Sometime next week or in the next couple of weeks, we'll get together and see where we are. There's not a rush. We've expressed an interest in extending his contract, and, if we could find a way to do that, I'd like to do that."
Therrien, who is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, declined to discuss his contract status.
Full speed ahead, at last
Crosby, who played the final month of the season with a broken bone in his left foot, was cleared Wednesday to begin full workouts. "It's healed pretty good," he said.
(Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.)
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