Don't count Pirates' pennies yet

By Dejan Kovacevic 
http://triblive.com/sports/
Published: Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, 10:39 p.m.

Phone rang the other day, and I had to yank it away from the ear before it ever got close.

“Warren Cromartie! Ellis Valentine! Andre Dawson!” the voice boomed from the other end. Rene Gayo, the Pirates' lovably loud Latin American scouting director, does that sort of thing a lot. It's like his hello.

In this case, he was referencing the magnificent Montreal outfield of the 1980s, the Expos' trio of athletic, dynamic, intimidating five-tool forces.

I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

“That's what we've got coming!” Gayo continued at peak decibel. “Two guys who can hit, throw and fly on the corners and an MVP in the middle!”

Yep. Andrew McCutchen, flanked by Gayo's two most prized signings out of the Dominican, Starling Marte and up-and-soaring prospect Gregory Polanco.

Should be a blast.

It should be a ton more fun than this dud of an offseason, huh?

Unless, of course, you're jumping into the Allegheny with excitement over Clint Barmes' return, Charlie Morton's extension and an old logo being called a new logo while the logo it replaced wasn't actually replaced.

Otherwise, it's been mostly exits: Marlon Byrd flew back to the Phillies for two years, $16 million. Justin Morneau signed with the Rockies for two years, $12.5 million. A.J. Burnett remains perched on the retirement fence after the Pirates wouldn't pay the $14 million arbitration tender, even as neither side has slammed the door shut.

Are they being cheap?

Well, the math isn't pretty: The Pirates spent $74,608,266 on the 40-man roster last season. (Note that's not opening-day payroll, the figure most often cited but which means next to nothing. That's the amount actually spent in 2013.) To date, the team's internal projections show a $78 million opening-day payroll for 2014.

If it holds, it's a $3.4 million increase.

Which would be pitiful.

And it would look that much worse in the context of an expected rise in attendance — Frank Coonelly has been crowing all winter about a record year at hand — as well as the $25 million in new national TV money from Major League Baseball's recent extensions with ESPN, Fox and TBS.

By season's end, there's no excuse for payroll to wind up below $90 million. Bare minimum.

But there's still ample time to spend and, if you ask me, a handful of ways to be smart about it:

1. DO MORE EXTENSIONS

Don't overthink it. There's no better use for spare money with a franchise like the Pirates than to keep the core together. Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez would do just fine.

2. LEAVE RIGHT FIELD ALONE

Sure, I'd have welcomed back Byrd, but Polanco probably will arrive in mid-June if you've listened carefully to Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle. In the interim, Jose Tabata and Travis Snider make for adequate placeholders.

3. FIND A FIRST BASEMAN

A sound argument can be made that Morneau could have provided stability. A stronger argument could have been made for James Loney, who chose the Rays at three years, $21 million, one more year than the Pirates wanted. So they'll go to Bradenton with unproven Andrew Lambo and platoon-profiled Gaby Sanchez. I hear the Pirates still are eyeing the Mets' Ike Davis and the Rangers' Mitch Moreland should they become available in the final week of spring training. Davis, 26, and Moreland 28, are big men with legit left-handed power. Both are worth the wait.

4. WAIT OUT A.J.

Really, there's no rush. The Pirates' money is still there on the table, they don't have other viable options, Burnett clearly wants to take his time, and so be it. If he signs for $10 million, suddenly payroll is near where it should be, and the staff adds a strikeout/groundout ace. If not, Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole and Morton are the top three, Jeff Locke can try to shake off his sluggish second half as a No. 4, plus maybe a healthy Wandy Rodriguez, maybe a rebounding Edinson Volquez. And Jameson Taillon can share a ride across I-70 with Polanco in mid-June.

5. STASH IT AWAY

As we saw late last summer, it can come in handy.

I asked Huntington on Wednesday in particular about Lambo at first base, the issue that might loom largest.

“Andrew has grown to a point where he's in a quality position to capitalize on an opportunity,” the GM replied. “We have work to do defensively, but if he progresses as expected, that may be his best opportunity. We've liked the young man for a long time and look forward to his continued growth. Part of what's allowed us to be patient in the first base/right field market is the comfort we have with our internal options.”

Sounds fine by me. Lambo is only 25, and he slugged 33 total home runs last season, one with the parent club.

It all just doesn't feel that urgent yet.

Other than, of course, waiting for Polanco in front of the Clemente Wall.

Dejan Kovacevic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dkovacevic@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Dejan_Kovacevic.

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Mike Munchak an ideal fit for Steelers

By Scott Brown
http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers
January 22, 2014

PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers made what will probably go down as their most significant acquisition of the offseason Wednesday when Mike Munchak agreed to become their next offensive line coach. 

Munchak

Yes, hiring Munchak is that big. 

No one on the planet knows the ins and outs of the NFL and playing offensive line like Munchak does. 

Think of the respect one of the greatest guards in NFL history will command from his new players. And his NFL resume merely starts with the 12 seasons he spent crafting a Hall of Fame career as a Houston Oiler. 

Munchak has more than two decades of coaching experience, and he impressed the Tennessee Titans’ brass enough in 14 seasons as the team’s offensive line coach that he rose to the head coaching job in 2011. 

Munchak might still be with the only NFL organization he worked for as a coach and a player had he agreed to make sweeping changes to his staff following a 7-9 season. 

That he ended up in Pittsburgh is a coup for the Steelers. 

The only downside to hiring Munchak: He is so highly regarded around the NFL that another head coaching opportunity could come his way in the coming years. 

Then again Munchak spent more than three decades with the same organization, so he can hardly be characterized as an opportunist who jumps from job to job. 

Munchak inherits an offensive line that is on the cusp of becoming pretty good if not really good provided it can ever stay healthy. He may be the coach to unlock underachieving offensive tackle Mike Adams’ considerable potential. 

And he becomes the point man in installing the outside zone-blocking scheme that the Steelers ditched last season after Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey went down in the opener with a torn ACL, a game that the Steelers lost to Munchak's Titans at Heinz Field. 

Munchak has tons of experience teaching the scheme, and it is something that will maximize Le’Veon Bell’s running ability. 

It’s hard to imagine the Steelers finding a better fit for the one opening -- at least for now -- on coach Mike Tomlin’s staff. 

And the Munchak hiring is a heck of a way for the Steelers to start an offseason that will bring its share of change.

Penguins bounce back, beat Canadiens 5-1

By Will Graves
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/pit/
January 22, 2014

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) makes a stick save against Montreal Canadiens center Daniel Briere (48) during the first period at the CONSOL Energy Center.(Photo: Charles LeClaire, USA TODAY Sport)

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Marc-Andre Fleury skated to center ice, eager to add an exclamation point to his 28th victory of the season.

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• Penguins rally by weary Winnipeg, 6-5 The Associated Press
• Jokinen, Kunitz lead Pens past Rangers The SportsXchange
• Penguins chase Price in second period NBC Sports

The Pittsburgh goaltender was cut off, though, by referee Kyle Rehman before he could reach Montreal counterpart Peter Budaj. All Fleury could do was shrug his shoulders as Rehman guided him out of harm's way.

''Oh well,'' Fleury said with a laugh.

It was the only thing that didn't go Fleury's way on a night the Penguins restored order to their universe. Fleury stopped 23 shots, Jussi Jokinen picked up two goals and Pittsburgh dominated the Canadiens 5-1.

Evgeni Malkin added a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosbypicked up his 26th of the season and Taylor Pyatt added a rare score as the Penguins rebounded from a dismal performance against lowly Florida on Monday by overwhelming Montreal.

''We definitely buckled down, especially defensively,'' Crosby said. ''Didn't give them a ton and when we did (Fleury) made some great saves and we generated some good chances and capitalized on them. It was a good game to respond.''

Wed, Jan 22, 2014

Montreal	1	Final
Pittsburgh	5

The Panthers snapped Pittsburgh's club-record 13-game home winning streak by outclassing the Eastern Conference leaders on both ends of the ice to send the Penguins to their worst home defeat in more than two years.

Coach Dan Bylsma called it the byproduct of a steady decline in play over the last three weeks and the rustiness that comes with the return of regulars like James Neal and Paul Martin to the lineup.

Whatever the problems were, they disappeared 48 hours later.

The Penguins were crisp in the neutral zone, responsible on defense and efficient on offense. They didn't pepper Price so much as they surgically picked him apart. All five goals were either the byproduct of deft passing or nifty stickwork.

Rene Bourque had his seventh goal for the Canadiens but Montreal spent most of the night fruitlessly chasing the Penguins. Carey Price stopped just 16 of 21 shots before being pulled late in the second period as the Canadians fell for the fourth time in six games.

Three Stars

1. 
   1)Evgeni Malkin
   #71, Pittsburgh

   G:	1
   A:	1
   Pts:	2
   +/-:	3

2. 
   2)Jussi Jokinen
   #36, Pittsburgh

   G:	2
   Pts:	2
   +/-:	2

3. 
   3)Matt Niskanen
   #2, Pittsburgh

   A:	2
   Pts:	2
   +/-:	1

''Pittsburgh is the best team in the conference, and they were the best team tonight,'' Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. ''They played hard and they deserved success.''

Jokinen, who tends to score in bunches, gave the Penguins the early lead after being on the receiving end of a bit of brilliance by Malkin. The Russian star took a pass from Matt Niskanen then darted around a flat-footed Montreal defender before feeding Jokinen with a centering pass that Jokinen easily slid by a diving Price 8:48 into the game.

''You can't let Malkin carry the puck like that up the ice,'' Bourque said. ''It looked like he was playing a video game out there every time he went around us.''

Pyatt doubled Pittsburgh's advantage later in the period, deflecting a Niskanen slapshot from the point to make it 2-0. After failing to score in his first 27 games this season - 22 with the New York Rangers and five with the Penguins - Pyatt has found the back of the net twice in three games.

Bourque briefly gave the Canadiens a lift by chipping the puck by Fleury late in the first, his seventh goal of the season coming via replay after his shot was initially waved off by officials.

View gallery

Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin (71) gets around Montreal Canadiens' Andrei Markov before …

The momentum shift didn't last. Jokinen fired a knuckling one-timer by Price 5:46 into the second period to restore Pittsburgh's two-goal lead and Crosby pushed his point total to an NHL-high 69 by redirecting a pass from Chris Kunitz that made it 4-1.

Malkin ended Price's night by swooping in from the right circle and putting in his own rebound. Price skated to the bench after being chased for the second time this season in favor of Budaj, who stopped all 10 shots he faced.

The saves will be long forgotten. The way Budaj nodded across the rink to Fleury to start a fight that never quite happened won't, though Budaj insisted it was nothing personal.

''I think there was just a scrum on the ice and there was built-up tension - you know, we were losing 5-1,'' Budaj said. ''It was a disappointing night for us. So props to him that he wanted to do it. That's good.''

NOTES: All six of Pittsburgh's defensemen had at least one assist. ... Penguins G Tomas Vokoun skated for about 45 minutes on his own Wednesday morning, the first tentative steps in his return from blood clots in his pelvis. The 37-year-old Vokoun was taken off blood thinners recently though it remains unclear when Vokoun will be cleared to practice. ... Montreal scratched F George Parros and D Raphael Diaz and Alexei Emelin. ... Pittsburgh scratched F Zach Sill and D Robert Bortuzzo. ... Pittsburgh plays at the New York Islanders on Thursday while the Canadiens play at Detroit on Friday.

The Mind of McCutchen

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Stephen Copeland

http://www.sportsspectrum.com/

Since being awarded the National League MVP in November, Pittsburgh Pirates star Andrew McCutchen gets the questions all the time.

What’s the key to success?

How did you get the MVP?

What makes you so calm and confident?

McCutchen’s start to the 2013 season, however, wasn’t exactly MVP-caliber. After signing a five-year contract extension the season before, McCutchen was quickly dubbed the savior of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the one who would help them bury their 20-year playoff slump and break their 20-year losing season streak, the longest in professional sports. He was the “Face of the Franchise,” with his warm smile and trendy dreadlocks, but he was hardly living up to that expectation.

Not at the start of 2013.

“If you would’ve told me at the start of the year that I was going to win the MVP,” McCutchen laughs, “I would have said, ‘I don’t know about all that.’”

Truth is, at the start of 2013, “Cutch” was anything but clutch.

McCutchen’s April batting average ranked 12th—and no, not in the league—on his own team. His slump at the end of April, a rotten 1-for-28 dry spell, was the worst of his career. In a contest against the Cardinals, McCutchen was even removed from the game.

His problems stretched into May, too, where he had another 2-for-19 slump, his second drought in the Pirates’ young season.

“My spring training wasn’t the best start ever,” McCutchen reflects. “Didn’t do too well. I didn’t feel the same way (I did the year before.) And the season had the same feeling. The first couple months were pretty difficult for me.”

Eventually, of course, his circumstances changed.

But not until he changed his way of thinking.

Bigger In The Low

Jump forward seven months. McCutchen nervously sits on stage at “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” as DeGeneres asks him, “Are you single, are you dating anyone?”

McCutchen points out his girlfriend of four years, Maria Hanslovan, in the audience, then asks her to come on stage. A video chronicling their relationship appears on the screen, McCutchen professes his love on one of the most popular talk show in America, then gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. Hanslovan says “yes,” making McCutchen not only the best baseball player in the country but also probably the most romantic.

“I was trying to catch my breath,” McCutchen recalls. “Ellen was talking to me, and I don’t know, she started talking and I was talking back—then she jumped straight to the questions about Maria.

“She was supposed to ask me a couple more questions,” McCutchen laughs. “The fact she went straight to it made me more nervous. To her defense, she thought I was too nervous to even answer any more questions.”

It’s his fiancé Maria Hanslovan, McCutchen says, that helped him through his slump at the start of the 2013 season.

She didn’t fix it. She just pushed him deeper.

“We do a devotion together every day,” McCutchen says. “There were a few that we did and one that really stood out and made me think about my career. It made me ask the question, ‘Is my career more important or is my relationship with God more important?’ At the time, I was like, ‘You know what? The game of baseball has been kind of overtaking me.’”

It’s easy to understand how a guy like Andrew McCutchen could feel the pressure from a game like baseball. Whether it’s Barry Bonds or Doug Drabek, the Pirates are infamous for either losing their best players to free agency or trading them away. McCutchen may be the first sign of hope in Pittsburgh since the early 1990’s. And he seems to be in Pittsburgh to stay. But he also knows that, in a game as mental as baseball, succumbing to the pressure isn’t going to produce good results.

“Maria and I prayed, and I prayed on my own as well,” McCutchen continues. “I said, ‘You know, Lord, I’m going to give everything I’ve got. Even baseball, You gave me this. I’m supposed to give it back. I give everything I have to You. I do everything through You. I do everything for You. Just lead me in the direction I need to go in.’ I said, ‘If I didn’t have this game, it’s okay, because I’ll still have You, and I’ll still have You to lean on and go to.’

“From there, from that moment, everything just fell into place. I had a bigger outlook into things as the season.”

Transition

It really is fascinating to get a look inside the mind of one of the best players in the world, to catch a glimpse into the mentality of a player who went on to lead the Pirates in just about every offensive statistical category (hits, runs, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage), won the NL MVP award by a landslide (receiving 28 of the 30 first-place votes), and helped lead the Pirates to their first post-season appearance and winning season in 20 years.

And the look inside may surprise you.

“I was maybe hitting .200 the first month and the second month wasn’t that much better, and out of nowhere I started picking it up and getting better and getting better,” McCutchen recalls. “But that didn’t just happen. I was getting closer to God. The closer I got to God, the closer relationship I got with Him, the easier it was to play the game of baseball.”

McCutchen is not one who believes God grants him success on the field if he pays his respects. He doesn’t believe God is a lucky rabbit’s foot or genie. But he does believe that having a worldview bigger than baseball and an identity breaching deeper than his batting average has the ability to free up his mind. Plus, enjoying and experiencing a constant God makes for a much better life than enjoying and experiencing the ebb and flow of an inconstant game.

“The game is not mine,” McCutchen says. “It doesn’t control me. I give it all to God. People say that when something happens to you with the Lord, you start to see things different. That’s kind of the way I started seeing things…and the more I started to see things differently, the more my game took off. I think that, in a nutshell, is kind of what I tell people. My success, that’s how it happened for me.

“I’m not saying that you get results on the field because you give your life to God. But it’s just the fact of saying that if there is anything in life that you do or anything that you want, make God the center of your attention, and He will open your eyes to make things a lot easier for you to see. And it makes failure easier to be able to encounter because you know that God is there. You know it’s just an obstacle He put you through to get you where He wants you to go.”

Bigger In The High

What’s most intriguing, perhaps, is that his worldview does not change in light of winning one of the most prestigious awards in Major League Baseball. When you ask him about it, you probably won’t get much more than a laugh and a simple, “It’s awesome, it’s cool.”

Just as a .200 batting average at the start of the season wasn’t what is most true of him, neither is an award. An identity that begins and ends with something this world creates is, frankly, a shallow identity.

McCutchen’s identity, rather, is in two things: loving others and loving God.

“If I fail, I know that I’ll be alright because I have so many things I can look at and know that, you know what, my life isn’t based on results,” McCutchen says. “My life is based on how I can make a difference in someone else’s life…There are other things in life that are so much more important that the game of baseball.”

It’s why McCutchen views each game as an opportunity to serve the sometimes 40,000 people that pack into PNC Park to watch the Pirates.

says. “Knowing that I could change a kid’s life by signing an autograph or talking to him is the reason I’m there. There are so many people out here who just come to get away from home or get away from life and feel like when they show up at a ballpark, all that stuff that happens on the outside gets put on pause. People show up at a ballpark to get away from it.”

It’s also why McCutchen is the spokesperson for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh and founded Cutch’s Crew in 2010, an organization that mentors inner city youth baseball players and at-risk children.

And it’s also why McCutchen approaches professional sports in a way that may as well be labeled counter-cultural.

“For me as a player, I’m not a big personal goal person,” McCutchen says. “I feel like personal goals can make you become selfish. It’s a team sport. If I want to hit .300 for the year, and I’m in the last month of the year and I’m at .295, then I’m going to start thinking selfishly that I need to get some hits so I can get my average up. Then I start thinking more about myself than I do my team. The only personal goal I set for myself is: What can I do to make the team better?”

Winning the NL MVP will certainly do that.

And yet, as good as 2013 was for Andrew McCutchen, it’s his perspective that developed throughout the year that allows him to say the following:

“I know there are a lot of people who would love to have the MVP,” McCutchen says. “It’s awesome to have it. But when you start to figure out that the Lord is the foundation of your life, the MVP is nothing compared to the love of God and what He can do for your life.

“There’s no comparison.”

By Stephen Copeland

This story was published in the January 2014 Sports Spectrum DigiMag.

http://www.sportsspectrum.com/articles/2014/01/21/the-mind-of-mccutchen/

Sidney Crosby named captain of Team Canada for Sochi

Jonathan Toews, Shea Weber named alternate captains

The Canadian Press
http://olympics.cbc.ca/
January 19, 2014



Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics that secured the gold medal for Canada. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Sidney Crosby is the face of the NHL and hockey in Canada, so it's only natural that he'll be the country's captain at next month's Sochi Olympics.

The Pittsburgh Penguins captain, who scored the gold-medal-winning overtime goal against the United States in Vancouver four years ago, got the nod to wear the "C" this time around.

Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators were named alternate captains, Hockey Canada announced Sunday morning.

"Sidney, Jonathan and Shea have been leaders on the international stage in the past, as well as with their NHL teams," coach Mike Babcock said in a statement. "These three players will be at the forefront of our efforts in Sochi, but we are confident we have 25 players on our roster that will lead in their own way and allow our team to be successful."

There will be no shortage of leadership in Sochi given the presence of six NHL captains, but it starts with Crosby.

"Playing for Team Canada, playing in the Olympics is a great opportunity," Crosby told reporters at Penguins practice. "But being able to be named the captain is definitely an honour."

Crosby was made the youngest captain in NHL history when he got the "C" for the Pittsburgh Penguins six and a half years ago. In 2009 he raised the Stanley Cup as captain.

At the 2010 Olympics, Crosby was an alternate along with defenceman Chris Pronger and winger Jarome Iginla. The 26-year-old Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, native doesn't expect his mind-set to change much.

Veteran defenceman Scott Niedermayer captained that team and said before his Hockey Hall of Fame induction in November that he had no doubt Crosby is ready to assume that role.

"He's very mature," Niedermayer said. "He was probably ready when he was 16. He was probably ready in 2010, and the thinking was he's going to have enough pressure on him just from who he is and things like that that he doesn't need one more thing to worry about, give it to some old guy that's just trying to figure things out out there. I'm sure he would do very well."

Toews seemed like the only other logical option, based on performing in 2010 and leading the Blackhawks to two Stanley Cups. Last week he acknowledged the possibility of being named captain.

"I'm ready for any role," Toews said in Montreal. "Last time, I played five, six, maybe seven minutes at the start of the tournament in Vancouver. By the end of it, the coaches had more confidence in me. They put me in more defensive situations. This time around won't be different. Whether I'm captain — or not — whatever. I'm going to Russia to win a gold medal like everyone else."

'It doesn't get old'

This will be the second Olympics for most of the core, including the leadership group.

"Honestly, it doesn't get old," Crosby said in Vancouver of just making the team. "That feeling doesn't get old. The appreciation and being proud to represent your country, it's the same for everybody."

Asked if he preferred "Captain Canada" over his current nickname of "Sid the Kid," Crosby said: "I'll let you guys worry about that." Ryan Smyth of the Edmonton Oilers has that moniker, and Crosby expects it to stick with the Hockey Canada mainstay despite this announcement.

Russia already named Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings as captain. It's Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins for Slovakia and Tomas Plekanec of the Montreal Canadiens for the Czech Republic.

The United States has yet to name its captain, though general manager David Poile singled out Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Dustin Brown, Ryan Callahan and David Backes as the U.S. leadership group.

The men's ice hockey tournament in Sochi begins Feb. 12. Canada opens against Norway on Feb. 13.

Caroline Ouellette was named captain of Canada's women's team. Hayley Wickenheiser will be a permanent alternate, while Jayna Hefford and Catherine Ward will rotate the second "A."

"There is a tremendous amount of experience in our dressing room, and there is no shortage of qualified candidates to wear a letter," women's coach Kevin Dineen said in a statement. "The players we have selected as captain and alternates in Sochi have shown their dedication and commitment to the team and its end goal throughout a long season, and we feel they are the ideal choices to lead our team through the Olympic experience."

Canada's women's team opens play Feb. 8 against Switzerland.

Greg Westlake was named captain of Canada's sledge hockey team. Brad Bowden and Adam Dixon are the alternates.

"This is the leadership team we have had in place since 2011, and we have the utmost confidence in them leading our team into Sochi," sledge team coach Mike Mondin said in a statement. "Greg, Brad and Adam have worn the Team Canada jersey with pride every time they have put it on, and have earned the right to wear a letter on the game's biggest stage."

Why Sidney Crosby is actually underrated

By Colin Fleming

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nhl

January 10, 2014

A relentless worker, Sidney Crosby has continually developed all aspects of his formidable game.

Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

Take a moment to think about NHL superstars and their signature styles and attributes. Alex Ovechkin plays like a heat-seeking missile. Steven Stamkos has his laser-precise Howitzer shot from just inside the face-off dot. Bewitching stickhandling wizardry is the way of all things Patrick Kane and Pavel Datsyuk.

But what about Sidney Crosby, who is better than all of them?

Crosby inspires questions that are usually reserved for the all-time greats -- such as how many players in NHL history have basically been a constant threat to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer (provided they stay healthy, of course)? By my count, we're talking about four guys in their primes: Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Crosby. It's easy to associate the first three with their most salient skills: Howe was relentlessly physical, the man whose trademark hat trick came to mean a goal, an assist, and a fight in the same game. Gretzky was an offensive visionary, a Socrates on skates. Lemieux was the grand master of size and finesse. You can keep going with Hall of Famers such as Maurice Richard, who was a paragon of burning intensity. Bobby Orr had game-altering speed from the backline. Mike Bossy had his snake-snapping-at-you fast release. Phil Esposito was a supreme slot presence. Bobby Clarke had guts and guile ...

But what do we associate most with Crosby? Sniping ability? Dangle derring-do? Net drive skills? No, nope, nah. But they're all there in his game—in spades. Rarely, if ever, has a player had such a richly textured game, one so well-balanced that, his point totals aside, we can easily take it for granted.

It's not easy to find analogues for Crosby, and when you try to come up with them, you can sound a bit fatuous. Doug Gilmour kind of/sort of fits the bill in that he was a center who, during his best years, could score 30-plus goals per season while dishing 70 assists, but he was also a defensive maven and tough SOB, which Crosby is not. If you watched HBO's recent 24/7 series during the run-up to the 2014 Winter Classic, you saw that scene where a Maple Leafs player kvetched to the ref about Crosby hitting him from behind, to which Crosby replied, in profanity-bolstered terms, that he doesn't hit anyone. Which is both hilarious and true.

So maybe a Gretzky comparison will work? Both players are veritable Omega Points of, well, points, but Gretzky was more of a mystical presence on the ice than Crosby is now. After the 1987 Canada Cup, in which Gretzky's Team Canada, arguably the greatest hockey squad of all time, beat the Soviets, arguably the second greatest, a Russian coach said something to the affect that when Gretzky takes the ice, he seems almost harmless, but before you realize it, the puck is in the back of your net. Then Gretzky goes out a few shifts later and much the same thing occurs. So I contend that avidly studying Gretzky on old tapes is the best way to uncover the secrets of his game, but with Crosby, just watch him closely and you will learn. You don't need to focus on what he might be thinking—as with Gretzky—you simply need to observe. His game is for the true hockey connoisseur, just like the peatiest Islay whisky stirs the soul of the diehard Scotch drinker. You can see elements of other superstars' games in his, but more than that, you get a portrait of an artist as, dare I say it, an underrated hockey player.

Some specifics:

1. He's quicker than you think.

A list of the NHL's fastest NHL players—hello, Erik Karlsson!—usually doesn't include Crosby, but if you bear down and watch him skate. you'll notice that he usually goes in a straight line only when he's busting to the net to corral a pass. Otherwise, he's all bobbing, weaving, and constant misdirection, but hardly anyone ever catches him from behind. It's like some Doctor Who trick that Gretzky—another underrated skater—would have understood. There are speed merchants, and then there are hypnotic speed merchants. That's Crosby.

Also, watch how he explodes out of crossovers, seemingly defying physics as he goes. This particular ability reminds me of major league pitchers whose blazing fastballs appear to rise into the upper portions of the strike zone a la Roger Clemens' heat, circa '86. Now, you know this isn't scientifically possible—the pitch has actually slowed and started to sink by the time it dents the catcher's mitt—but I bet it still feels like the apex of speed to the batter. Crosby must appear much the same way to a pursuing backchecking center who watches him enter the attacking zone, set his edges, power into a crossover as he loops back to the blueline, and then cuts towards the center of the ice, creating pockets of time and space. It is from these pockets that the greatest of the greats create their magic. If each player on the ice during any given shift is out there for 40 seconds, it seems as though Crosby, somehow, has an extra five built into his 40, and much of that impression comes from his uncanny skating ability.

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2. His arsenal is second to none.

Crosby has generated 64 percent of his career points via assists, which is surprising, because you'd think that the world's best passer would have a bigger goals-helpers differential. But Crosby can snipe, and his shot arsenal is tops in the league. He has the best backhander since Eric Lindros, maybe the best of all time. Watch him drive the right wing, dip his shoulder—which serves to hide the shot angle of his stick—and then send the puck on its journey to the top of the net. Snipe-tastic. This season, he's ripping more one-timers, including an instance when he was on his strong-side wing. The puck had to cross his entire body before he could drive it home in a single motion. Hardly anyone one-times shots from their strong side wing. You're not even supposed to try. It's too easy to whiff on the puck, but Crosby connected and scored.

There is also his quick release. A goaltender will tell you that he'd much rather face someone who takes the puck, takes a big windup and unloads a 100 MPH bomb than a player who gets off a middling shot, velocity-wise, within a nanosecond of receiving a pass. Yet, so few players realize that one of the keys to scoring in today's NHL—hell, even during the more wide open days of yore—is not allowing a goalie to get set. Crosby understands this. His rapid release, though, is like Bossy's in that the velocity of his shot is still near a peak level. More crucially, Crosby's is GPS-accurate and tends to result in pucks zipping an inch or two above the ice and ending up tucked just inside the posts.

GALLERY: Sidney Crosby's career

3. He's a truck on the puck.

Few NHL players are harder to bump off the puck than Crosby. His core strength, low center of gravity, and strength on the edges of his skates make him like an unbudgeable NBA post player, albeit one who moves at 25 MPH. And while last year's playoff ouster at the hands of the Boston Bruins suggested that he's soft and anything but a grinder, no offensive player may be more of a beast below the goal line. Crosby's knack for turning his body into a shield, keeping the puck safely secured, and making radial turns before firing a tape-to-tape pass to a teammate in the slot is the epitome of modern day cycle-based hockey. If you've ever played, even in a beer league, you've surely been aware of the guy who used to play Division 1, the one you think you have lined up in the corner only to bounce off him when you take your glorious Dave Schultz-esque run at him. Crosby is like that guy, only more so.

Most players, even NHLers, move in the direction of the hit they receive. Some power back through it, recoiling from the boards to deliver a pop of their own. Others allow their bodies to be blasted into directions that best enable them, with the help of their linemates, to grind in the offensive zone. There's an artistry to the play of the best fourth lines, for whom this is a speciality. But watch players try to hit Crosby. They often go one way and he goes another. You know that they want to knock him into the third row. He's annoying. He's the best, he knows it, and he whines more than anyone. But hits that should ride Crosby off the play tend to create scoring opportunities for him, with seams opening as he bounces free of his check.

Now, no one would ever mistake Crosby for Mark Messier, but this sort of play is kind of rugged, or at least as physical as he gets. It's no surprise that Crosby's physicality has a utilitarianism to it, that it's yet another aspect of his game in service to lighting that ever-beckoning lamp. Come the Olympics, he'll have more space to work with on the bigger ice surface, and if we were giving him those imaginary five extra shift seconds before, maybe it feel more like seven in Sochi.

Oh my, look out!

Actually, that exclamation could serve as the summary for the bottom of Crosby's eventual Hall of Fame plaque.

Colin Fleming is the author of "Dark March: Stories for When the Rest of the World is Asleep." He is finishing a novel, "The Freeze Tag Sessions," and a work of nonfiction, "Just Give Me the Backing: A Life Lived to the Music of the Beatles." His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and more.

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