Crosby puts premium on his skating ability

Thursday, January 22, 2009
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Sidney Crosby calls it heel to heel, a simple and appropriate description of the move he often uses to swoop behind the net -- feet splayed to nearly 180 degrees, skates gliding on the inside edges, the trailing foot pumping almost imperceptibly.

"You have to be flexible because it's hard on your groin," the Penguins center and team captain explained recently.

"That's really what skating is -- turning, cutting, just being comfortable knowing you're not going to fall when you do certain stuff, having power and being flexible."

Crosby, part of the Penguins' NHL All-Star contingent heading to Montreal this weekend along with center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman and YoungStars participant Kris Letang, seems as qualified as anyone to offer a definition of skating.

He's not the fastest skater in the league, but he's quicker than most. He didn't invent techniques such as heel to heel, but he perfected them before he got to the NHL. He certainly is one of the toughest to knock off his skates.

Just ask any player who tries to get or keep the puck away from Crosby in the corners. Part of that is deft stick-handling, and part of it comes from his muscular frame. It's also a product of his early training in the art of skating and his strong work ethic.

"When people are talking about him having the complete package, it's because he has everything -- skill, speed and he's skating the way not a lot of guys can," said injured Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, himself a silky smooth skater.

Gonchar wasn't so light on his skates when he arrived in the NHL from Russia more than a decade ago but worked hard to improve.

These days, Gonchar said, competition and the skill level of the NHL dictate that players be great skaters at earlier ages.

"If you're not going to be fast and not going to be a good skater, you're not going to make it," he said.

"[Crosby] always had it. He's a natural skater. I don't think he developed much more; he came in the league this way."

Crosby, 21 with an NHL scoring title and MVP award on his resume as he heads into the stretch drive of his fourth season, grew up watching the skating styles of former and current Russian-born players Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure. He noted the churning legs but not a lot of movement in their midsections and upper bodies, a good combination for speed and stick control.

"Bure was unbelievable," Crosby said. "He was probably ahead of his time. Nobody could skate with him for the longest time, and then guys, I'm sure, caught on to some of the stuff he did and secrets got out."

Crosby didn't just study; he has worked on his skating technique since he was a tyke.

When Crosby was 6, his father, Troy, sent him to camp at Andrews Hockey, a power skating school in Prince Edward Island. Brad Richards, now a veteran center with Dallas, worked there.

Crosby loved it.

"Sometimes I went to a couple [skating camps] a year, but I always made sure I went to that one in the summer," he said.

By the time he was 12, Crosby was a junior instructor at the school. His sister, Taylor, 12, now goes to camp there.

Crosby also was built for skating over the years through workouts with his personal strength trainer, kinesiology specialist Andy O'Brien.

Although he said he has had a good stride since he was little, speed came later.

"I was pretty powerful, but I had to learn to get my feet moving quicker," Crosby said.

He perfected the heel-to-heel technique at camps in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, run by skating coach John McWilliams.

"He used to have us put our sticks on the ice and we'd do that around our sticks for a minute, then with one leg and then the other leg," Crosby said. "We also used to do something called shoot the duck, where you go down in a squat with one foot out, so it's almost like you're sitting down. You stick one foot out as far as you can but keep it off the ice.

"We used to do a bunch of neat, fun stuff. You're put in a lot of different positions when you're getting leaned on [in games], so it really helps with your balance."

Crosby doesn't do anything special with his skates. He calls the rocker -- the curve of the blade -- "pretty average, right in the middle because you want to be able to lean both ways."


NOTES -- Team officials said Crosby is expected to participate in the SuperSkills Saturday night and the All-Star Game Sunday night. He has been hampered by a left knee injury and Tuesday was twice hit with a puck on the inside of his left forearm. The Penguins, who don't play again until Wednesday, reassigned forwards Chris Minard, Paul Bissonnette and Bill Thomas to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

First published on January 22, 2009 at 12:00 am