Sidney Crosby
Sidney Crosby
Sidney Patrick Crosby, ONSis a Canadian professional ice hockey player who serves as captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League. Crosby was drafted first overall by the Penguins out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. During his two-year major junior career with the Rimouski Océanic, he earned back-to-back CHL Player of the Year awards and led his club to the 2005 Memorial Cup final. Nicknamed "The Next One", he was one of the most highly regarded...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth7 August 1987
CityCole Harbour, Canada
CountryCanada
It's a little bit overwhelming seeing this kind of reaction to my arrival, but I guess I'm prepared for it, ... I heard that there was a lot of excitement in the city. I heard how Pittsburgh was a great sports town.
In football, every play, play after play, there's that physicality. Football players only play once a week, so they must really need to rest. That does kind of tell you how physical the sport is. But in hockey, you have the boards. I just couldn't say which is more physical.
It's more frustrating. My expectation probably wasn't that I'd play [during the playoffs], but I was just trying to make sure that if there was any chance that it was possible to come back that I was ready and that I'd done everything I could to be ready. It's frustrating, disappointing. But can't really control any of that.
I think every athlete will tell you no matter what sport you're in, when you train so hard and when you care so much about doing what you do, there's a little bit of nerves that come with that. But nerves that won't prevent you form performing, nerves that, hopefully, allow you to be that much more motivated and inspired to do well.
I'm trying to learn as much as I can out there, but I'm confident in what I can do,
I'm just trying to help the team win. That's been my goal all season.
I'm looking at it as short-term as possible. I want to have a good camp and push myself to raise my game as best I can. Obviously, this is a new level, but the pressure has always been there. I've always put a lot of pressure on myself to perform.
It's something that's been talked about a lot, so it's nice to get it and nice to have the weight off the shoulders, too.
It's special, not only for him but my whole family. We pretty much all grew up Montreal fans but, with him being drafted by them, seeing me play in this building against a team that drafted him I'm sure it's a little more special.
It's something you dream about, scoring in the NHL. There's a lot of emotion that comes out of that. But it would have been nice if we had finished it off.
It's so amazing, it's hard to believe, ... I was just fortunate to get that shot. I got lucky with that shot.
It was just the matter of taking advantage of our chances and making things happen. When we move the puck good things happen. It's not like we haven't been doing that in the past. It's just that they haven't been going in. It was nice to see them go in tonight.
I want to play as soon as possible, ... You want to play but I don't pick and choose. It's not my job.
Once I started watching the first game I became a fan. I totally forgot about the opportunity I had to maybe be there. I think it's always easy to say 'what if' and criticize, but the fact is it comes down to a one-game playoff. Whoever's the better team on that night's going to win.