Tuesday, February 16, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- His time, his team, his games.
Ten years after the Sydney Olympics, perhaps these games should be called the Sidney Olympics.
If Sidney Crosby delivers the Olympic hockey gold medal that Canada has won only once in 58 years, he will instantly move into the pantheon of his country's greats: Wayne Gretzky and Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux.
And with nearly an entire career to go.
Canada's Sidney Crosby skates during men's ice hockey practice at Canada Hockey Place at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday. Canada plays Norway Tuesday.
AP
While Americans are obsessing back home with Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller and its figure skaters, Canada's attention shifts today to its national pastime. No player will be under greater scrutiny or pressure in Vancouver to shake off the seventh-place disappointment of Turin in 2006 and win a home-ice gold than Crosby, who at age 22 is as close as it gets to a Canadian national treasure.
He's already won an NHL scoring title, an MVP award, the Stanley Cup.
Now the biggest prize of all awaits, as Crosby carries the hopes of 33 million hockey-obsessed Canadians into a preliminary-round game against Norway, the first of seven that must be played to win the gold medal.
Crosby knows what he's getting into. In 2002 and 2006, he expected gold himself as a fan watching every Olympic game.
"That's something as Canadians that we've grown up around. We've all watched it, and we've probably been the fan expecting good results," Crosby said. "I think that's typical and that's to be expected. There's nothing wrong with that."
No wonder an entire country held its breath Sunday when Crosby took a slap shot off his right leg during the Penguins' final game before the Olympic break. Crosby apparently is fine; he played the rest of the game, then flew to Vancouver for Canada's only practice Monday before the games.
His Penguins teammates, including three who are playing for other countries, don't doubt the competitiveness and determination Crosby took with him. Whether it's a friendly shooting competition before practice or Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals -- which he won last spring -- Crosby simply has to win. The Olympics will be no different.
"It is great competition anytime against Sid," said teammate Evgeni Malkin, last season's NHL scoring champion.
"Sid hates to lose," Penguins forward Max Talbot said.
Crosby knows what he's getting into in Vancouver; mentally, he's been preparing himself for the Olympics for months. The pressure and scrutiny of being a hockey star in the country that cares about the sport like no other? Crosby's been adjusting to that since Sid the Kid was an infant.
"Sid playing in the Olympic Games, playing in his own country, it's the next level of intensity he'll experience," said Sergei Gonchar, the Penguins' defenseman who will play for Russia.
Crosby's career has been tracked in his homeland since he was in puberty, the son of former goaltender Troy Crosby, whose own career lasted only two seasons after he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. Crosby's point totals in youth-level competition rivaled those of the sport's best; he scored 193 points in 74 games at the midget AAA level, a 15-year-old excelling against those two years older.
As in Little League baseball, one father's pride is another father's jealousy, and Crosby became so good so early that it angered the parents of less-skilled players. They encouraged their sons to do anything possible to get Crosby off his game, and he endured repeated whacks of the stick to his ankles and knees.
At age 15, Crosby and Canada endured a brief separation; he left for Minnesota to enroll in the private Shattuck-St. Mary's school, coincidentally attended by U.S. Olympic players Jack Johnson, Zach Parise and Jonathan Toews.
Crosby helped lead the team to a U.S. 17-and-under championship and escaped the incessant attention he already was receiving back in Canada.
Wonder how many of those parents who once couldn't stand the sight of Crosby now will be begging him to win the gold medal?
The Penguins' Sidney Crosby is leading the Canadian team in Vancouver.
Chaz PallaTribune-Review file
Crosby, 18 at the time and in the midst of a 102-point season as an NHL rookie, was left off that failed 2006 Olympic team because it was felt he was too young, too inexperienced, too untested. Now he is the face of the Canadian team at an age when many players have yet to make their way to the NHL.
Former Canada coach Pat Quinn doesn't think the country could have made a better choice.
"The hours put in and the work and the dedication to learning your craft -- there's a young man who's done it," said Quinn, the Edmonton Oilers coach. "Why did Gretzky become so good? It wasn't just genes. They work. They develop. They challenge themselves all the time."
Even after becoming the youngest captain to raise the Stanley Cup at age 21, Crosby felt there were flaws in his game. He became determined to become a better goal scorer and, with 42 goals, is tied with Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead. His previous career high was 39.
"The best way for me to lead is through my game," said Crosby, one of Canada's alternate captains.
That devotion to detail impresses Lemieux, the Penguins' owner and Hall of Fame player who has been Crosby's landlord since Crosby broke into the NHL in 2005. The two have forged such a close relationship that Crosby is considered another member of the Lemieux household.
"He's a special kid. He's a better player than I was at the same age, for sure," Lemieux said. "Some of the things he does on the ice, his strength, skating ability, is incredible, his passion for the game and his will to be the best each and every shift, his work ethic. He's got it all."
Not quite. There's still something else Crosby wants to win.
"You're representing your country, and you want to represent it well," Crosby said. "We'll just try to put everything aside and go try to win a hockey game."
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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