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spt_Crosby.appFooter = "By contributor Bob Duff";
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spt_Crosby[i-1].body = "The moment the National Hockey League has been waiting for has arrived.\"I feel that I came into the league at the right time,\" Crosby said. \"For me to be able to come when the rules were changing, obviously for an offensive player the rules are better for those players. There's less obstruction, more room to skate. At the same time, it's a faster game as well. I feel fortunate to come in when I did.\"
Crosby’s arrival sparked a Penguins turnaround, likely sealing the deal for a new arena and preventing a move by the franchise to Kansas City, Las Vegas or Oklahoma City.
Mario Lemieux
The Penguins were a moribund NHL franchise when they selected Lemieux first overall in the 1984 entry draft, having missed the playoffs for three straight seasons and having gone without a playoff series victory since 1979.
\"I had a lot of pressure on myself when I came into the league, pressure to win, to be successful,\" said Lemieux, who scored on Boston’s Pete Peeters on his first NHL shift. \"That's what comes with being a No. 1 pick overall.\"
Wayne Gretzky
Gretzky came on the scene in 1979, when Montreal's up-tempo brand of hockey was pushing the Philadelphia Flyers-led Broad Street Bullies mentality aside. He was part of the NHL-WHA merger, remaining Edmonton Oilers property after they used one of their priority selections to keep Gretzky out of the NHL entry draft.
The game was opening up and Gretzky’s appearance couldn’t have come at a better time, as Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur, who’d carried the NHL torch through the 1970s, were nearing the end of their run as the league’s dominant players.
Bobby Orr
The Boston Bruins missed the playoffs every season from 1959-60 through 1966-67, Orr’s inaugural NHL campaign. But they saw hope from the moment he arrived.
Orr came into the NHL a year prior to the first expansion and his style of constantly joining the attack from the defense not only revolutionized hockey, it helped sell the game in emerging NHL markets.
At a time when television was first making major strides into sports broadcasting, Orr’s extraordinary combination of on-ice charisma, speed, puck control and dynamic shooting ability captured a league’s attention like no player before him.";
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While lighting the league up individually, Crosby has sparked a resurgence in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1992.
\"Essentially, getting Sidney in the organization really gave us a quick turnaround to be able to put a great product on the ice and having a chance to win right away,\" Penguins owner Mario Lemieux said. \"He's the main reason why we've been able to do that so quickly.\"
Others are also taking notice of the change in the flightless birds.
\"If you look at Pittsburgh, their top three players are probably unlike anybody else with Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin and (Marian) Hossa,\" Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. \"I mean, they're almost in a class by themselves.\"
Mario Lemieux
Pittsburgh was an NHL laughingstock for most of its first two decades in the NHL, winning only four playoff series while the franchise switched ownership twice. That all began to change upon Lemieux’s arrival in 1984.
While it took Pittsburgh four seasons to make the playoffs, by the early 1990s a series of solid drafts and smart trades built them into a championship contender that won Stanley Cups in 1991 and '92, with Lemieux leading the way, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP both springs.
Wayne Gretzky
The NHL avoided Edmonton as a franchise location during the rabid expansion from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, but when the Oilers were usurped as part of the NHL-WHA merger, the Gretzky-led club quickly showed how viable a market it was. The Oilers paid $850,000 to Indianapolis to gain Gretzky early in the 1978-79 WHA season and it was money well spent.
The Oilers were a playoff team their first season with Gretzky leading the way. In 1980-81, they upset the Montreal Canadiens and by 1982-83, were playing the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup finals. Edmonton won four Stanley Cups during its first nine seasons, an NHL record.
Bobby Orr
The Boston Bruins were considered NHL Siberia in the 1960s. It was a six-team league in those days and four teams qualified for the playoffs. Despite having such strong odds in their favor, the Bruins managed to miss out on postseason play for eight straight seasons from 1959-60 through 1966-67. They were up a creek without a paddle until they found their Orr.
Orr turned them into a playoff team by his second season and had them in the semifinals the following spring. Twice over the next three years, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and finished as the NHL’s top regular-season club, with Orr registering the Stanley Cup-winning goal in both 1970 and '72. Prior to this, they hadn’t achieved either accomplishment since the 1940-41 season.";
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For the first time in his NHL career, Crosby battled back from a serious injury, a high ankle sprain that sidelined him from Jan. 19-March 3. \"When Sidney went down, obviously it was tough for us because he's one of the best players in the world,\" Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar said.
Despite playing a feisty style that gets him involved in play and constantly in traffic, it was rare for Crosby to be injured. He had 110 penalty minutes as a rookie and led all first-year players in minor penalties.
\"It's not something that you want to be, in the penalty box all the time,\" Crosby said. \"You want to be out there playing. I play an aggressive game. Sometimes, you get a little over aggressive. You get penalties for that. But I think I have to play an aggressive game in order to force turnovers, create opportunities ... I'm not going to try to change too much. I think emotion is definitely part of the game and it brings out a lot in players. It’s a tense game and there's no doubt that sometimes, I get caught up in it.\"
Mario Lemieux
Lemieux battled back and heart problems and overcame cancer as a player.
\"There were nights when his back was so bad, one of the trainers would have to tie his skates just so he could play,\" former teammate Rick Kehoe said. \"He couldn't even bend over, yet he'd go out on that ice and just dominate.\"
Twice, Lemieux departed from the game due to his ailments, only to return and once more excel.
\"He came back and led Canada to the Olympic gold medal (in 2002),\" Kehoe said. \"There aren't many guys who could take that much time away from the game (three years) and return to play it at that level.\"
Wayne Gretzky
The Great One was a genetic freak. He was never a fitness fanatic until the later years of his career and laughed off weight training as a young NHLer. His arms were pencil-thin and the hands that created more goals and assists than any player in the history of the game were shockingly tiny.
But it was Gretzky’s most powerful muscle, his brain, that maintained his health. He had uncanny peripheral vision -- one player suggested that bodychecking Gretzky was like, \"Trying to hit a rope.\"
He was also blessed with a knack for anticipation, of knowing where the puck was going before the disc ever got there. His slight build meant Gretzky was never a banger or someone who gravitated toward the corners, so he generally avoided contact. A thinking-man’s player, the game always came easily to him.
Bobby Orr
No NHLer’s health woes were more prominently discussed or impacted upon their career more dramatically than Orr and his wonky knees, once described by legendary writer George Plimpton as looking like a bag of handkerchiefs.
Numerous operations on his knees in the days prior to arthroscopic surgery cost Orr hundreds of games during his career.
It’s fascinating to note that in the three full seasons he managed to play, Orr won two scoring titles and set an NHL record for assists in the other. But the season following his 1974-75 Art Ross Trophy, he managed only 10 games and after playing an additional 26 contests over the following three seasons, Orr retired at the age of 28.";
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Crosby is making 87 a number coveted by kids. He'll always be identified with the digits and no one else will ever look right in it. Crosby fortified the meaning of the number in his world when he signed a five-year contract extension in the summer that will pay him -- no surprise here -- $8.7 million per season.
His reasoning for choosing the number are twofold -- it gives him the opportunity to make it his own and allows him to be an individual who stands out in the crowd, just as he does when he’s playing.
The creative force behind the digits is biographical. Crosby was born Aug. 7, 1987 - the eighth month and seventh day of 1987.
Mario Lemieux
When Mario the Magnificent arrived on the scene, the comparisons to Gretzky were obvious, so the upside down 99 made perfect sense.
Just as Gretzky made 99 his personal possession, no one will ever wear 66 again. It’s Mario’s number, plain and simple and wouldn’t look right on anyone else.
Wayne Gretzky
Gretzky was a rookie with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds in 1977. He’d always worn No. 9 as a youngster due to his fondness for Gordie Howe, but veteran Brian Gualazzi was already No. 9 in the Soo and wasn’t about to surrender the digit.
Still wanting to have the nine on his back, Gretzky went with two of them and initiated a legend.
When Gretzky retired in 1999, all 30 NHL teams retired the No. 99 out of respect for what he meant to the game.
Bobby Orr
Orr wore No. 2 in junior with the Oshawa Generals and came up in an era when numbers weren’t as dynamic. Other than 9 -- worn by Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull -- no digit was truly associated with superstardom.
Orr actually began his rookie NHL campaign wearing No. 27 for the Bruins in preseason games, but fatefully was switched to No. 4 to commence the 1966-67 season, forever sparking the poetic announcements of \"No. 4, Bobby Orr.\" over the Boston Garden public address system.";
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The Penguins made history on May 31, 2007, making Crosby at 19 years of age the youngest captain in NHL history. \"I've always tried to lead by example,\" Crosby said.
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux sees natural leadership traits within Crosby, the sort of leader-by-example model.
\"His work ethic is probably the best that I've seen with an 18, 19-year-old,\" Lemieux said.
Crosby insists with the Penguins, it’s more about leadership by committee.
\"I think with the way things are, we have a lot of young guys,\" he said. \"We have basically a leadership group. I think that's fine. We all have to grow. We all have to make sure we're comfortable.\"
Mario Lemieux
The timing was impeccable when the Penguins made Lemieux their captain at the age of 21. He’d just teamed with Wayne Gretzky to help demolish the Russians in the 1987 Canada Cup and had matured to the point where he was ready to fill the leadership role in Pittsburgh.
\"I think the Canada Cup really changed the way I played the game afterwards,\" Lemieux said. \"I really learned during those six weeks playing with those guys and practicing with those guys for that long a period of time how to be a winner, what it takes to win and how dedicated you have to be to get to the top. I learned that from Gretzky, (Mark) Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, Ray Bourque, all these great players.\"
Wayne Gretzky
Veteran defenseman Lee Fogolin was named captain of the Edmonton Oilers in 1981. Just two years later, Fogolin resigned from the position to make way for Gretzky. It was the ushering in of a new era, where the team’s unquestioned best player was also its unquestioned leader, handed that leadership role at a young age.
Gretzky was 22 when he first donned the captain’s C, at the time, the youngest captain in NHL history. Once more, he was also a trendsetter. As Edmonton won Stanley Cups with its youthful leader, teams like the Detroit Red Wings (Steve Yzerman) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Mario Lemieux) followed suit by naming their emerging superstar as their captain.
Bobby Orr
The captains of Orr’s era, players such as Toronto’s George Armstrong, Montreal’s Henri Richard and Detroit’s Alex Delvecchio, weren’t always the best player on their team, but they were the largest presence in the dressing room. Orr clearly was both for the Bruins, but his private persona made him an unlikely choice as captain of the team.
It’s interesting to note that for the majority of Orr’s tenure with the team -- from 1967 until 1973 -- the Bruins went without anyone wearing the \"C.\" They are the only NHL team to win a Stanley Cup without a designated captain to accept the trophy.";
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Like Wayne Gretzky before him, Crosby seems to understand his role as a spokesman for the game. Not all great ones accept this and lately, some of the stars who’ve entered the game have proven to be media shy or simply too bland to catch the attention of hockey fans. Crosby is among a group of young, charismatic stars that also includes Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin and Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk.
\"We all love to play and hopefully we can bring interest to other people watching it or even people would want to play it, as well,\" Crosby said. \"You know, there's nothing wrong with that and I think it's good to have a young group like we have and hopefully it can be a successful group for years to come.\"
At the same time, Crosby understands that the most important thing he can do for the game is continue to improve and realizes that no matter how accommodating he is, he’ll never satisfy everyone.
\"Of course, there's going to be expectations,\" Crosby said. \"I think I've dealt with those throughout my life. I have to look at myself in the mirror and see what mine are. I can't worry about other expectations too much. Of course, I want to be a good role model, be a good person, but at the same time as far as hockey's concerned, all I can do is be my best.\"
Mario Lemieux
When he first entered the NHL, Lemieux was reluctant to serve this purpose as a spokesperson for the game. It started poorly for him at the 1984 entry draft when he refused to leave his seat and partake in the traditional donning of the sweater photo op.
In the early 1990s, he called out the obstruction-fettered NHL, labeling it a \"garage league.\" Lemieux frequently bristled at interview requests and seemed to leave the game in 1997 a bitter man.
But when he returned to hockey in 2000, he was a changed person, as if the time away allowed Lemieux to embrace his passion for the game and come to understand how much he could help hockey. By accepting a share of ownership of the team in 1999 in lieu of money owed him by the bankrupt franchise, he helped save the Penguins from folding or moving elsewhere.
\"He’s done more for Pittsburgh than any athlete in the history of the Steel City,\" said his former teammate and current Pittsburgh scout Rick Kehoe, a member of the Penguins franchise since 1973. \"Through his (Mario Lemieux) Foundation, he’s raised millions for cancer research. People don’t know that part of the man.\"
Wayne Gretzky
The essence of what Gretzky was all about was evident on what turned out to be his final game at Joe Louis Arena in the winter of 1999. The New York Rangers had scraped out a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings without much help from The Great One, who had been forced to retire from the contest with a painful rib injury.
As anyone who has suffered injured ribs will attest to, breathing is a necessary evil. All other functions are listed as optional. Holding a news conference would be out of the question. Yet there was Gretzky afterwards, pressed against a wall by an army of reporters, explaining how he had left the ice because he didn't want be a detriment to his team. A public relations flak grasped Gretzky gently at the elbow, attempting to guide him out of the room. Gretzky pushed the fellow away, casting a piercing look towards his direction which clearly stated: \"Don't you ever do that again.\"
That's what made Gretzky the greatest. It wasn't the 800-plus goals, the 2,800-some points, the 11 scoring titles, the nine most valuable player awards. Those made him a great player. But it was Gretzky who created the persona of The Great One. He embraced his role as spokesman for the game. His meaning to hockey was not merely carved out with skates on ice. Gretzky’s accommodating personality led the game to previously unthinkable possibilities.
Bobby Orr
Orr was never comfortable in the spotlight and often hid from the media. He was one of the first professional athletes to seek asylum from the masses by hiding out in the trainer’s room, which is off-limits to all but team personnel.
Teammates shrugged it off, insisting Orr did this because he wanted to ensure that they, too, were given their due. Whether this is true is debatable, but one factor is certain: Orr brought the same dynamic to the game on the ice that Gretzky did, accomplishing previously unheard-of feats.
Had he been granted Gretzky’s gift for selling the game to the masses, Orr could have brought hockey the same positive attention in the 1970s that Gretzky provided to the sport in the 1980s. ";
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His second spring in the postseason, Crosby was a sensation, scoring a playoff-high tying 27 points while leading the Penguins to their first Cup finals appearance in 16 years.
Crosby produced 10 multi-point games in the playoffs, including a club-record four-assist performance in Game 2 of the opening round against Ottawa.
\"You want to contribute,\" Crosby said. \"And when you get opportunities, you want to make sure they go in.\"
Mario Lemieux
Like Crosby, Mario's second playoff performance was one of magnificence. He'd collected 19 points in 11 games in his Stanley Cup debut in 1988-89, but trumped it two springs later, carrying the Pens all the way to their first title. Lemieux topped all scorers with 16 goals, 28 assists and 44 points in 23 games en route to a Conn Smythe Trophy win as Stanley Cup MVP.
He followed up the next spring with quite the encore, rebounding from a broken wrist to lead the Pens to another Cup, leading the scoring race again with 16-18-34 numbers in a scant 15 games, joining former Philadelphia goalie Bernie Parent (1974, 1975) as the only players to win back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophies.
Wayne Gretzky
Two Conn Smythe Trophies (1985, 1988) decorate the multi-faceted hardware store that is the Great One's trophy case. No players has dominated the playoffs like Gretzky. Six times he was post-season scoring leader. Four times, he won the Cup, all as captain of the Edmonton Oilers.
He is the Stanley Cup career leader for goals (122), assists (260) and points (382), registered 10 hat-tricks in playoff action and owns single-playoff marks for assists (31, 1988) and points (47, 1985) among his 12 Stanley Cup records.
After being swept by Philadelphia as a rookie in 1980, the following spring, Gretzky and the Oilers first made some post-season noise, engineering a stunning sweep of Montreal before falling to the eventual Cup champion New York Islanders in six games.
Bobby Orr
The Bruins hadn't won a playoff game since 1959 when Orr helped lead them back to post-season play in the spring of 1968. They were swept aside by Montreal in four games, but the next spring were back and took the reigning Cup champion Canadiens to six games in the semifinals before succumbing on a Jean Beliveau overtime goal.
Orr's third post season was historic. He set a Stanley Cup record for defensemen with nine goals as the Bruins capture the Cup for the first time since 1941, including his oft-replayed soaring through air Cup-winning OT tally against St. Louis, perhaps the most famous goal in NHL history.
Two years later, the Bruins won the title again on another Cup-winning goal by Orr.";
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Crosby wasted no time in making the league his own upon his arrival from juniors, becoming the Art Ross Trophy winner and Hart Trophy winner last season while still a teenager. The MVP award was won only twice by first-year NHLers -- Gretzky (1979-80) and Herb Gardiner (1926-27). But Gardiner was a veteran pro at the time and Gretzky had a year of WHA seasoning under his belt, so Crosby winning the Hart in his second NHL season, is an accomplishment that at least parallels what Gretzky achieved.
\"I believe he's one of the most valuable players in the league,\" said New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur of Crosby.
Mario Lemieux
Lemieux was a 100-point scorer and the Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s top rookie in 1984-85 and became the first and only rookie to ever be named MVP of the NHL All-Star Game.
In his second season, he recorded 141 points, finishing second to Wayne Gretzky in the scoring race and earned the Pearson Trophy, an MVP award voted on by players. Two years later, Lemieux won his first of his six scoring championships and the first of his three MVP awards.
Wayne Gretzky
Gretzky won the Hart Trophy in his inaugural season in the NHL, the first of his unprecedented eight successive seasons as MVP of the league. He also registered 137 points that season, which remains a record for a first-year NHLer. He was also the youngest (just over 19) NHLer to ever record a 50-goal season.
He won the first of a record seven straight Art Ross Trophies as league scoring champion in his sophomore season of 1980-81 and shattered the record for points in a season twice in his first three seasons, becoming the first and only NHLer to top 90 goals and 200 points in 1981-82. Gretzky led or shared the league lead in assists in each of his first 13 seasons.
\"My timing was perfect,\" Gretzky said. \"I played on the exact team I needed to be on, more offensive than defensive.\"
Bobby Orr
Orr won the Norris Trophy in his second season, beginning a run that would see him be named the NHL’s top defenseman for eight straight seasons.
He set a new NHL record for defenders with 21 goals in 1968-69 and broke that record three more times during his career, including a 46-goal season in 1974-75.
In 1969-70 he became the first defenseman to register a 100-point season and win a scoring title and in 1970-71, was the first NHLer to garner 100 assists in a single campaign.";
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Crosby like all great players, makes others around him better and more productive players. Eleven Penguins hit double digits in the goals column during the 2007-08 season. Ryan Malone (27-24-51) set career highs for goals, assists and points, Petr Sykora equaled a career best with 15 power-play goals and Evgeni Malkin became the 12th player in franchise history to record a 100-point season. Winger Pascal Dupuis enjoyed a career-best five-game assist scoring streak skating on Crosby's wing.
\"I think with my game I'm much more a playmaker,\" Crosby said.
There's also a cumulative effect. Since Crosby arrived at the start of the 2005-06 season, the Penguins have 94 wins and 207 points, more than any other Eastern Conference team.
Mario Lemieux
Warren Young was a career minor-leaguer, a seven-season pro with two NHL goals to his credit when he was put on Lemieux’s wing during Super Mario’s rookie season of 1984-85. Lemieux turned Young into a 40-goal scorer and how much Lemieux meant to Young’s productivity was evident when he left Pittsburgh the following season and produced just 30 goals the rest of his NHL career without Mario feeding him the puck.
Journeyman Randy Cunneyworth was a 35-goal scorer for Pittsburgh in 1987-88, while Bob Errey collected 26 goals in 1988-89.
Wayne Gretzky
Blair MacDonald produced 46 goals in his first NHL season of 1979-80 playing on Gretzky’s line. The next season, without Gretzky setting him up, MacDonald collected a mere 19 goals.
Dave Lumley was another beneficiary of the Gretzky factor, potting a career-high 32 goals while skating alongside The Great One in 1981-82. After he was traded to Los Angeles in 1988, Gretzky teed up a spectacular year for Bernie Nicholls, who tallied 70 times during the 1988-89 season. He never produced more than 46 goals during any other NHL campaign.
Bobby Orr
Phil Esposito produced all four of his NHL scoring titles and each of his six 100-point seasons as Orr’s teammate in Boston, but perhaps the best measure of what Orr meant to his game can be counted within Esposito’s point-per-game average. He was good for 1.24 points per game without Orr and 1.65 per game when Orr was on his side.
Several Bruins produced their finest NHL work while working alongside Orr. John Bucyk’s only 50- and 40-goal seasons as well as all five of his 30-goal campaigns came during the Orr era.
Likewise, Ken Hodge produced a 50-goal season, two 40-goal campaigns and his lone 30-goal season as Orr’s teammate. Wayne Cashman’s only 30-goal campaign also came in the same lineup as Orr in Boston. ";
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No matter how great he is, Crosby can't do it alone. The further emergence in the 2007-08 season of 100-point scorer Evgeni Malkin and the trade deadline addition of Marian Hossa made him more dangerous. The acquisition of Hossa allowed the Penguins to ice two potent lines -- Crosby with Hossa and Pascal Dupuis and Malkin with Ryan Malone and Petr Sykora.
\"Obviously when you get skill level like Malkin and Sid is a year older and (defenseman Ryan) Whitney is a year older and (goalie Marc-Andre) Fleury, the pieces are there,\" former Pen Mark Recchi said. \"These guys are winners. They want to win and they have a great attitude of coming to the rink every day and working and trying to get better. And I just think that's the biggest reason why we've continued to get better here.\"
Crosby himself has noticed his life get much easier now that the opposition also must deal with Malkin.
\"He fit in right away, and I think he's continued to get better,\" Crosby said. \"He scores a lot of beautiful goals, a lot of highlight-reel goals, but he's dangerous every time he's out there, so I think we have a good one-two punch going right now and we have a pretty good relationship.\"
Mario Lemieux
The Penguins missed the playoffs in four of the first five seasons that Lemieux was part of the team, simply because he was a man virtually alone on an island.
By the late 1980s, the team began surrounding him with other talent -- Paul Coffey arrived in 1987, Tom Barrasso in 1988 and Kevin Stevens in 1989.
Jaromir Jagr was the final piece of the puzzle, the club’s top draft choice in 1990. The anagram of Jaromir is Mario Jr. and he proved a worthy foil to Lemieux. Between the two of them, they captured 11 NHL scoring titles between 1987-2001 and led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and '92.
Wayne Gretzky
There was no doubt that Gretzky was the type of star seldom seen before in the game, but when Jari Kurri arrived to play on his wing in 1980, it allowed Gretzky to transcend to another level. Gretzky assisted on 60 percent of Kurri’s goals, while Kurri figured in 20 percent of Gretzky’s tallies.
In 1980-81, Gretzky shattered the NHL single-season point-scoring mark, then became the NHL’s first 200-point man a season later, a feat he accomplished three times with Kurri as his linemate. Meanwhile, Kurri exceeded the 100-point plateau every campaign between 1982-83 and 1986-87 playing alongside Gretzky.
Bobby Orr
Phil Esposito enjoyed some solid seasons as an NHLer with the Chicago Blackhawks, but when he was dealt to Boston in 1967 and became Orr’s teammate, the two men went on an unprecedented run of statistical output. They made the Art Ross Trophy their personal plaything with Esposito (1968-69, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73, 1973-74) and Orr (1969-70, 1974-75) owning every NHL scoring crown over a seven-year span.
The duo also shared five Hart Trophies as league MVP during that time period, while leading the Bruins to two Stanley Cups. Esposito became the first NHLer to record a 100-point season in 1968-69 and established two records with 76 goals and 152 points in 1970-71. Orr set a record the same season, becoming the first NHLer to post a 100-assist campaign.";
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Crosby sees the game differently than other players. He does things with the puck that very few would ever consider trying. For the majority of players, the back of the net is an obstacle. Crosby views it as an opportunity, and will often bank the puck off the side or rear of the goal to himself or to a teammate to create a scoring opportunity. He'll also bank pucks off opponents and teammates alike for goals.
\"I think how he controls the puck, how he find his partners, it's unbelievable,\" Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin said. \"He's a great player. I watch lots of games he plays.\"
Penguins teammate Malkin, himself a high-end star, revels in teaming with Sid the Kid.
\"He has a great view on the ice,\" Malkin said. \"He’s always going to find you with his great passes. It's easy to play with a player like Sidney Crosby.\"
Another key with Crosby is that he is always looking to improve, working diligently to hone his game. He’s never satisfied and that’s a true mark of greatness.
Mario Lemieux
When Dave Roche was a rookie forward with the Penguins in the-mid 1990s, he was granted the plum assignment of playing on Lemieux’s wing.
\"It took a little getting used to,\" Roche said. \"You had to adjust to getting to the spot that much quicker, to expect a pass when it might not seem possible to make that pass. My first NHL goal, Mario had a guy draped all over him, was going to the ice and threw the puck back to me through his legs. It was quite an eye opener, playing on Mario's line, just adapting to how well he saw the ice and how quickly he could make things happen.\"
Besides world-class speed, at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Lemieux was also gifted with the size and strength to overpower the opposition, a trait few superstars are ever afforded.
Wayne Gretzky
Walter Gretzky offered his son a sage piece of advice early in his career -- go to where the puck is going, not to where it is right now. Blessed with an uncanny, almost unnatural sense for the game, Gretzky would often use the boards to pass the puck to himself, leaving a defender flatfooted and embarrassed.
Graceful on his blades and elusive as a waterbug, the slight Gretzky could disappear and reappear in the attacking zone. His inner radar seemed to sense opposing defenders in his area and it was a rare occasion when anyone was able to put a solid hit on Gretzky. Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin compared trying to check The Great One to attempting to scoop up armfuls of fog.
Gretzky wanted teams to mesmerize on him, because they’d end up leaving one of his teammates open for the home-run pass.
Bobby Orr
Orr brought new adjectives to hockey descriptives as he orchestrated the symphony that was Boston’s high-tempo offense. Stopping Orr in flight was like attempting to snare a fly buzzing through mid-air.
When he came over the boards, all eyes fixated on him, because every shift, there was a chance that something magical might happen.
He was playing the European flow game before the rest of the NHL had even discovered it. If Orr brought the puck up ice and no opening was evident, he’d simply swoop back to neutral ice and reload for another try. Teams became so obsessed with preventing Orr from going anywhere that it inevitably opened avenues for teammates to garner easy scores."; // END editorial data