Reply To: Articles

[hockeygod]

A night to remember

Michael Grange, Sportsnet.ca, November 22, 2011

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/11/22/grange_crosby_greatness/?source=video

Pittsburgh – The good ones surprise, please, entertain. The greats? They perform on demand and rarely disappoint, a significantly higher standard.

It's a heavy burden they carry over and over and over again. They're rewarded with the kind of devotion kids have for their favourite stories: sure, they know how it goes — but they like how it goes, so they watch again and again.

And so welcome to the storybook return to action authored by Sidney Crosby at the Consol Energy Center last night. He spent 11 months sidelined, waiting for his clearly special brain to heal. Meanwhile, the hockey world was holding their own hopes for his safe return as dearly as a cup of arena hot chocolate on a cold morning. And now No. 87 was back.

And Crosby, a great one, put on a show. Two goals, two assists. Dominant shift after dominant shift. Puck battles won. A 5-0 victory over the stunned New York Islanders.

Everyone expected it, but no one could really believe it.

"You have the sense that that's going to happen, maybe because it's happened on many occasions," said Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma, who said he made an effort to soak in the moment as much as he possibly could while juggling his suddenly over-flowing lineup.

"I was reading the comments of his teammates today – I was maybe a little bit more hesitant than they were – but they weren't surprised at all to see him come out there and do some of those things. He certainly showed another knack for coming up big when the spotlight is on."

By the time he jumped on the ice for his third shift the emotions had drained out of the building just a little bit. Crosby's return was a big deal in Pittsburgh, but it wasn't quite the second-coming it was in Canada, where Being Erica was scrapped on the CBC for Hockey Night in Canada. Scalpers were taking as little as $50 for singles outside moments after the puck dropped. The streets were quiet; everyone who needed to be in the building was in their seats.

But make no mistake, inside they were ecstatic. Crosby's linemate Pascal Dupuis said it was as loud as he's ever heard the building.

There was the standing ovation in the warm-up. The "Let's Go Sid!" chants as they played a montage of his greatest moments on the scoreboard before the game. The roars for his first shift, an otherwise unremarkable 55 seconds.

"It felt like 1:40," he told his coach.

His second one came and went in a blink lasting just 20 seconds before Bylsma pulled him and his linemates off the ice in favour of a preferred face-off matchup. He needn't have: Crosby ended up winning 14-of-21 draws in his 15:54 of ice time for the game.

By the time the first five minutes of the first period had elapsed the crowd had paused to catch its breath.

Down in the lower bowl, near the Penguin's net however at least one fan saw the magic develop; anticipated how the rush was taking shape probably just as quickly as Crosby did.

"Come on Sid," he yelled.

And as the words were out of his mouth there was Crosby hippity-hopping in the neutral zone to pick up speed. Dupuis hit him in stride with a little touch pass as if this really was their 21st game of the season together instead of their third shift of the year.

From there the rest of the crowd could see developing what that lone voice had just seconds before. Bylsma said he saw it in slow motion, another in a growing collection iconic plays authored by No.87, touchstones for hockey fans for decades.

There's the Gold-medal winner at the Olympics, his shootout winner in Montreal in his first visit as a rookie. Putting Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators through the spin cycle during the Stanley Cup playoffs before setting up Kris Letang from his knees. There are others. There will be more.

On Monday night Crosby did as Crosby does; picking up speed, going wide on a panicked Andrew McDonald; leaning into the Islanders defenceman to hold him off and then surprising rookie Anders Nilsson – what a night to make your first NHL start — with a backhand rifled top shelf.

His celebration was trademark — one leg; both first pumping as he glided through the corner. The only blemish being a few choice words bellowed to the rafters and caught on camera.

"I was obviously really excited," Crosby said. "I was watching the replay and read my lips and hoped everyone wasn't reading lips at home. It's hard to keep that in."

He didn't stop there. His fourth shift came on a powerplay and it was Crosby who smoothed a pass over to Brooks Orpik for a one-timer and Crosby's first assist of the season.

He earned another assist on a goal by Evgeni Malkin midway through the second period as the Penguins' powerplay, 11th in the NHL heading into the game, will clearly be improving.

He even got his first cheap goal of the year – a fluttering backhand that bounced off Islanders defenceman Steve Staios and somehow through Nilsson, who will be seeing Crosby and the Penguins in nightmares for years to come.

Crosby was a bit sheepish about it; stifling a grin as he did the mandatory fist-bumps with the bench, but hey, it's not how but how many, and now he's only 25 points behind the Leafs' Phil Kessel for the NHL scoring lead.

"I'm not going to make any predictions on that," joked Bylsma. "But we have 61 games left and his pace is pretty good right now."

Points aside last night was a lesson, a reminder of how fantastic a player Crosby is. 24-years old and still improving; still getting stronger. Only his health can hold him back and for one night, it was perfect again and if Crosby was worried, he certainly didn't show it, as he played with abandon.

Like all the very best do when they're in their element, he enjoyed himself deeply.

"The goals and assists were great, but just being back out there, I can't really describe it," he said. "It was exciting, I was anxious, there was a lot of different things going through my mind, but the main thing was the joy of playing which I've missed the last 10 months."

The best player in the game was the player of the game, quite easily, despite taking 320 days away from it.

Crosby has been teased as the next one, a great one, a candidate for hockey's Mt. Rushmore since he was a teenager and Wayne Gretzky, the last one, said he would break all his records one day.

He won't. The game has change in ways no one could have imagined since Gretzky was putting up 200-point seasons as hockey's Babe Ruth. But one thing hasn't changed and that's the expectation that the very best do remarkable things and do them at special times. In the great reality show that is professional sports, a special place is reserved for those who can deliver their lines at the right time.

The spotlight came up and Crosby played his part. Hockey is better for it.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."