Crosby wants just one tag

Sunday, May 17, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Sidney Crosby: On a daily mission.

There is a difference, Sidney Crosby was saying the other day before he stepped deeper into the Mellon Arena bowels for another tough off-ice workout. It's not so much about being the best hockey player in the world that drives him. "I don't need that tag to sleep at night," he said. It's about being the best hockey player he can be every day, every practice, every game, every shift. "The only time I've ever seen Sid get really [ticked] off is when he feels like he hasn't done everything he's capable of doing," teammate Max Talbot said.

That hasn't been a problem during this Penguins playoff push. Crosby has never played better than he did against the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals. Although just about everyone long has recognized and admired his all-around brilliance as a two-way player, there has been some criticism that he didn't shoot the puck enough, certainly that he didn't score enough. Well, there Crosby is now, leading the NHL pack in the playoffs with 12 goals, almost all coming after he went hard to the net and paid every bit of the expected physical price.

And that best-player label that the man says is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things?

Clearly, it's his, all his.

That Crosby tormented the Flyers in the first round is no surprise. Philadelphia fans have been chanting obscenities at him since his rookie year when he had the brass to complain to the referees about a high stick to the face from Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher that was not penalized and left him with a four-stitch cut on his lip and without parts of three teeth. Whiner, those geniuses call him. Crybaby. Soft. (Yeah, right. See going hard to the net, above.) Crosby just laughs and shrugs it all off. "It's been going on for so long that it's just crowd noise now," he said. But don't think for a second that he didn't love doing his part to eliminate the Flyers for the second consecutive spring, including getting two goals in the decisive Game 6 to bring the Penguins back from a 3-0 deficit. "I'm sure Sid takes it personally," Talbot said.

There was extra motivation for Crosby in the Washington series, as well. It wasn't just the silly comments in the fall from Capitals winger Alexander Semin. "What's so special about [Crosby]? I don't see anything special there." It was the talk before and during the series that the Capitals' Great 8 -- Alex Ovechkin -- was the best player in the world. Maybe that sort of thing doesn't keep Crosby up at night, but he's human, isn't he? He takes great pride in his job, doesn't he? How could that not give him a little extra jump?

Funny, you don't hear much talk now about Ovechkin or, for that matter, Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin being better than Crosby. Not after Crosby led the Penguins past the Capitals with eight goals. Not after he scored the huge first goal on the road in Game 7 with a fabulous bit of hand-eye coordination, kicking the puck with his right skate to his stick and banging it into the net in a nanosecond. (His ease in doing it was almost unbelievable, actually.) Not after he pilfered the puck from Ovechkin -- how cool was that? how appropriate? -- and scored the final goal of the series on a breakaway.

"He's our captain, our leader," Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. "The other guys see him flying around the ice on every shift. He's a great example for our team to follow."

"You have no choice but to follow him," Talbot said.

That's not just during the games. It's in those off-ice workouts and at every practice. Crosby is considered a maniacal worker. "All hockey, all the time," Talbot said. "He's always looking for ways to get better." That's why Crosby's response was so predictable in January and February when the Penguins were scuffling just to make the playoffs and some on the outside were questioning his leadership ability: "When you're losing and things are going bad, you have to work harder," he said. Asked how that is possible for a guy like him who's always working, anyway, he grinned and said, "Oh, you find ways, believe me ... I'll do anything to be successful. I hate not being successful."

You have no idea.

"In practice, you'll miss a pass and he'll give you that look," Talbot said. "He doesn't do it to be mean. He does it because he wants everything to be right."

That's why motivation won't be a problem for Crosby against the Carolina Hurricanes even if he can't draw on outside forces the way he did in the Philadelphia and Washington series.

It would be nice if the Carolina crowd -- a lot more docile than the hate-filled Philadelphia fans -- would turn nasty toward Crosby. Maybe the Penguins can get the Hurricanes' new No. 1 fan -- Bill Cowher -- to do something about that. Then again, maybe not.

It also would be nice if a Carolina player would be dumb enough to question Crosby's ability or a prominent media type would argue that Hurricanes star Eric Staal is better than Crosby. But neither of those things is likely to happen, either.

No worries.

Crosby still will be amped.

"He's all about this team winning," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said.

You want to know what drives Crosby?

Bingo.

That and being his absolute best, of course.

Go ahead, call Crosby the best player in the world, if you like. He'll say thank you, respectful as always, and be quite pleased. Who wouldn't be?

But, really, there's only one tag that Crosby desperately wants.

It's so obvious, isn't it?

Champion.

Stanley Cup champion.

First published on May 17, 2009 at 12:00 am