Sidney Crosby

[nccanes]

I sure hope this kid can hold up under the intense scrutiny that has been foisted upon him. The kid isn't even draft eligible this year and TSN has had a graphic and link on their main hockey page for "The Crosby Show" (documenting every word written and spoken about him on TSN) and Cherry gives him grief for his celebrations on Coach's Corner, etc.....

I hope this kid can survive with his game intact and his head together.

Oceanic sits Crosby for two road games
TSN.ca Staff with RDS files
2/13/2004

Junior Hockey fans in Lewiston and Drummondville won't get a chance to see teenage phenom Sidney Crosby in action next week.

TSN's sister station in Quebec RDS reports that the Rimouski Oceanic will not dress the 16-year-old for the two road games because the QMJHL's referees have been lax on penalty calls at Crosby's expense.

The Oceanic contend that referees have allowed too much physical abuse of their superstar, which came to a head in Thursday night's home game against the Halifax Mooseheads when a number of big hits and 'cheap shots' after the play went unpunished.

While opponents could argue they don't play Crosby any differently than they do anyone else on the ice, the Oceanic say Crosby draws extra attention from opponents and requires additional protection from the officials.

QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau said he's looking into the matter.

"He's our bread and butter," he said Friday. "If there are cheap shots they have to be called, but he can't be treated differently than any other player in the league."

The average attendance for QMJHL games in which he plays is 103% capacity.

Crosby will play on Tuesday at Le Colisee in Quebec, as the game will host over 7,000 minor hockey players in that city for a major Pee Wee tournament, but if the team doesn't receive assurances of protection from the league, he won't be playing in Lewiston and Drummondville. The Oceanic will visit the Lewiston MAINEiacs next Thursday and the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Friday. Both games have been sold out.

Adding to the Oceanic's protest is the team's contention that they want to protect Crosby from injury before the playoffs, which will begin in one month. Crosby leads the QMJHL in scoring with 45 goals and 108 points.

[murda338]

I didnt see what was so good about him in the World Jr's I think thiers way to much hype on him.

I stared at the kid to, maybe its cuase hes 16 but i dunno...

[AbNormal27]

Crosby played last night and he drew a couple penalties out of the refs for the other team and potted his 46th goal. The QMJHL commish was on TSN last night and he said that he believes that if there is an open line of communication from the Oceanic and Crosby's reps about their concerns, then they can address the situation. He didn't once mention Crosby directly, instead chose to say that it was the Oceanic and the agent for Crosby who are upset.

MONTREAL -- Unhappy with the work of referees, the Rimouski Oceanic said yesterday Sidney Crosby won't dress for games next week in Lewiston, Me., and Drummondville, Que., according to a report on the website for RDS, TSN's French-language affiliate. The Oceanic claims officials have been lax in calling infractions against the 16-year-old prodigy, the report said.

The Oceanic play Lewiston Thursday and Drummondville on Friday. Tickets are sold out for both games.

Rumours have recently surfaced about Crosby, a possibility to go first overall in the 2005 NHL draft, quitting the Quebec Junior Major Hockey League to play in Europe.

"The lack of protection for Sidney means that he may perhaps consider this option," Oceanic general manager Doris Labonte told RDS.ca. "If I was his parents, I would react the same way."

League commissioner Gilles Courteau said he will study the case.

"He is our bread and butter," said Courteau. "If vicious hits are made, they should be punished. But Sidney can't be treated differently than other players in the league."

I just thought that it should be stated that Sidney Crosby doesn't appear to be becoming another whiner like Lindork was when he was in Oshawa.

Aaryn

[nccanes]

Thanks for the update Aaryn.

I feel bad for the kid, it's seems to be an unfair amount of scrutiny. I realize that the Oceanic and his reps need to look out for him, but I hope he doesn't get some sort of rep that makes it even harder for him. He's still got a year to go in Juniors.

Personally, I think the TSN "The Croby Show" graphic/link and section is just too much.

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Just saw this and thought some might find it interesting...from www.worldhockeyassociation.net.

Entry Level Draft Preview

Although it is expected Rimouski Océanic centre Sidney Crosby will be the first player chosen in the WHA Entry Level Draft on July 10, you can expect that Moscow Dynamo star Alexander Ovechkin will not be far behind.

Like the original World Hockey Association the new WHA will allow 17-year-olds to play. Crosby, who turns 17 in August, could follow in the footsteps of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier who both turned professional in the WHA at the age of 17 with the Indianapolis Racers.

Both genuine NHL stars the following season, Gretzky finished his first pro season with the Edmonton Oilers – scoring 46 goals and 110 points - while Messier went on to the Cincinnati Stingers.

It is expected that players from this year’s entry level draft plus those selected in the past two NHL drafts, but unsigned, could make up almost one-third of WHA rosters.

Only one year removed from high school, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native would be a natural for the Halifax entry in the WHA. But his impact at the gate would also make Crosby extremely attractive in the hockey hotbeds of Toronto and Detroit. Crosby will have to choose between another year of junior with the Océanic and a lucrative year in the WHA before he becomes eligible for the NHL draft.

Ovechkin and the others selected in the NHL draft will also have difficult decisions to make if they are also drafted by WHA teams. They can hope for a guaranteed NHL contract this summer and no work stoppage next fall, stay in junior, or play professionally in the WHA.

The hockey operations departments in many of the WHA cities are already targeting certain junior prospects. Detroit definitely has an interest Michigan State University blue liner A.J. Thelen. A projected first round NHL pick, Thelen scored 11 goals and added 18 assists in 41 games this past season.

Left wing David Booth, a fellow Spartan, could also get the opportunity to stay close to his friends on campus. Booth played in only 29 games this season but still finished with 8 goals and 10 assists.

Four University of Michigan standouts will also attract significant attention from the Detroit WHA franchise. Outstanding goaltender Al Montoya, forwards T.J. Hensick and Mike Brown, and defenceman Matt Hunwick are sure to attract attention at the draft table.

Halifax will likely be targeting a number of Québec Major Junior League stars. Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Jason Churchill may get a chance to turn pro at age 19 and his teammate, forward Jan Steber should also garner attention.

Bruce Graham, a 6-foot-6, 220 pound centre from the Moncton Wildcats is likely to catch the eye of the Halifax brass as will P.E.I. Rocket right wing David Laliberté.

The Toronto Toros will have a couple of outstanding local puck stoppers from which to chose. David Shantz of the Mississauga Ice Dogs and Justin Peters of the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors could both be drafted by the Toros.

Although, this may belong more with the CBA stuff.

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Just saw this and thought some might find it interesting...from www.worldhockeyassociation.net.

Entry Level Draft Preview

Although it is expected Rimouski Océanic centre Sidney Crosby will be the first player chosen in the WHA Entry Level Draft on July 10, you can expect that Moscow Dynamo star Alexander Ovechkin will not be far behind.

Like the original World Hockey Association the new WHA will allow 17-year-olds to play. Crosby, who turns 17 in August, could follow in the footsteps of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier who both turned professional in the WHA at the age of 17 with the Indianapolis Racers.

Both genuine NHL stars the following season, Gretzky finished his first pro season with the Edmonton Oilers – scoring 46 goals and 110 points - while Messier went on to the Cincinnati Stingers.

It is expected that players from this year’s entry level draft plus those selected in the past two NHL drafts, but unsigned, could make up almost one-third of WHA rosters.

Only one year removed from high school, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native would be a natural for the Halifax entry in the WHA. But his impact at the gate would also make Crosby extremely attractive in the hockey hotbeds of Toronto and Detroit. Crosby will have to choose between another year of junior with the Océanic and a lucrative year in the WHA before he becomes eligible for the NHL draft.

Ovechkin and the others selected in the NHL draft will also have difficult decisions to make if they are also drafted by WHA teams. They can hope for a guaranteed NHL contract this summer and no work stoppage next fall, stay in junior, or play professionally in the WHA.

The hockey operations departments in many of the WHA cities are already targeting certain junior prospects. Detroit definitely has an interest Michigan State University blue liner A.J. Thelen. A projected first round NHL pick, Thelen scored 11 goals and added 18 assists in 41 games this past season.

Left wing David Booth, a fellow Spartan, could also get the opportunity to stay close to his friends on campus. Booth played in only 29 games this season but still finished with 8 goals and 10 assists.

Four University of Michigan standouts will also attract significant attention from the Detroit WHA franchise. Outstanding goaltender Al Montoya, forwards T.J. Hensick and Mike Brown, and defenceman Matt Hunwick are sure to attract attention at the draft table.

Halifax will likely be targeting a number of Québec Major Junior League stars. Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Jason Churchill may get a chance to turn pro at age 19 and his teammate, forward Jan Steber should also garner attention.

Bruce Graham, a 6-foot-6, 220 pound centre from the Moncton Wildcats is likely to catch the eye of the Halifax brass as will P.E.I. Rocket right wing David Laliberté.

The Toronto Toros will have a couple of outstanding local puck stoppers from which to chose. David Shantz of the Mississauga Ice Dogs and Justin Peters of the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors could both be drafted by the Toros.

Although, this may belong more with the CBA stuff.

[Anonymous]

Check this out. http://www.tsn.ca/chl/news_story.asp?id=96207

[Anonymous]

Check this out. http://www.tsn.ca/chl/news_story.asp?id=96207

[apolinar]

So a team that didn't even draft him in the WHA "draft" is offering him all this money, even if they have no rights to even make the offer? This league really has lost its sense of logic and sanity, hasn't it? It had a team that doesn't exist draft a bunch of players as the "founder's franchise," now it's having teams offer contracts to players they don't even have rights to, and all this before cities have even agreed to have the teams in their arenas. Doesn't look good...

[apolinar]

So a team that didn't even draft him in the WHA "draft" is offering him all this money, even if they have no rights to even make the offer? This league really has lost its sense of logic and sanity, hasn't it? It had a team that doesn't exist draft a bunch of players as the "founder's franchise," now it's having teams offer contracts to players they don't even have rights to, and all this before cities have even agreed to have the teams in their arenas. Doesn't look good...

[AbNormal27]

Crosby rejects WHA offer
ByÂ*TIM WHARNSBY

Toronto — Teenage hockey sensation Sidney Crosby has turned down a lucrative offer to play in the fledgling World Hockey Association.

Troy Crosby, the father of the 17-year-old junior star, confirmed yesterday that the Hamilton franchise of the WHA made a three-year, $7.5-million offer this month that would have guaranteed Crosby $2-million up front.

But, after careful consideration, Crosby decided two weeks ago to return for a second season with the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Crosby, of Dartmouth, N.S., returned to Rimouski yesterday to join his Oceanic teammates at training camp. He missed the first week of training to rest after he returned last week from the eight-day Canadian junior team summer evaluation session in Calgary.

"It wasn't an easy decision and the offer was very flattering," Troy Crosby said. "It was a lot of money.

"I realize some people might not understand why Sidney turned down the offer. But he has his mind made up right now about where he wants to play. He wants to stick to his plan of playing another year in Rimouski. He's 17 and he is not playing for the money right now. He feels playing junior is the best way to continue to develop."

There were several factors that went into the player's decision.

First, the Canadian junior player of the year, who scored 135 points in 59 games, has some unfinished business in junior hockey. He wants to play for Canada again at the world junior championship and win it in Grand Forks, N.D., at Christmastime. Last year, Crosby and the Canadian juniors lost a heartbreaker to the United States on a fluke goal in the final.

Crosby also wants to lead the Oceanic to a championship.

Another factor was the uncertainty of the WHA's starting up in the fall.

"It's exciting that there might be a new league," Troy Crosby said. "We wish them luck, but right now there is nothing concrete. There are a lot of question marks."

The Toronto franchise drafted Crosby last month, but made a handshake deal with Hamilton that if Toronto could not get an arena lease deal by early August, Hamilton would be free to make Crosby an offer.

The lucrative offer was made and subsequently turned down two weeks ago. Hamilton owner Mario Frankovich did not want to discuss details of the offer yesterday and also declined to comment on where negotiations stand on an arrangement to play at the Copps Coliseum.

The WHA announced on June 9 that it plans to begin its schedule in late October, but yesterday, Peter Young, the WHA's president of hockey operations, said it is more likely the six to eight-team league will not play its first game until mid-to-late November because of scheduling conflicts in some of the arenas.

Meanwhile, Gino Naldini, the front man for the Toronto franchise, has resumed talks with officials of the Ricoh Coliseum, located on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition.

Negotiations stalled this month, but Naldini said yesterday, "I'm confident we can make it work there."

The saga rolls on.

Aaryn

[AbNormal27]

Crosby rejects WHA offer
ByÂ*TIM WHARNSBY

Toronto — Teenage hockey sensation Sidney Crosby has turned down a lucrative offer to play in the fledgling World Hockey Association.

Troy Crosby, the father of the 17-year-old junior star, confirmed yesterday that the Hamilton franchise of the WHA made a three-year, $7.5-million offer this month that would have guaranteed Crosby $2-million up front.

But, after careful consideration, Crosby decided two weeks ago to return for a second season with the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Crosby, of Dartmouth, N.S., returned to Rimouski yesterday to join his Oceanic teammates at training camp. He missed the first week of training to rest after he returned last week from the eight-day Canadian junior team summer evaluation session in Calgary.

"It wasn't an easy decision and the offer was very flattering," Troy Crosby said. "It was a lot of money.

"I realize some people might not understand why Sidney turned down the offer. But he has his mind made up right now about where he wants to play. He wants to stick to his plan of playing another year in Rimouski. He's 17 and he is not playing for the money right now. He feels playing junior is the best way to continue to develop."

There were several factors that went into the player's decision.

First, the Canadian junior player of the year, who scored 135 points in 59 games, has some unfinished business in junior hockey. He wants to play for Canada again at the world junior championship and win it in Grand Forks, N.D., at Christmastime. Last year, Crosby and the Canadian juniors lost a heartbreaker to the United States on a fluke goal in the final.

Crosby also wants to lead the Oceanic to a championship.

Another factor was the uncertainty of the WHA's starting up in the fall.

"It's exciting that there might be a new league," Troy Crosby said. "We wish them luck, but right now there is nothing concrete. There are a lot of question marks."

The Toronto franchise drafted Crosby last month, but made a handshake deal with Hamilton that if Toronto could not get an arena lease deal by early August, Hamilton would be free to make Crosby an offer.

The lucrative offer was made and subsequently turned down two weeks ago. Hamilton owner Mario Frankovich did not want to discuss details of the offer yesterday and also declined to comment on where negotiations stand on an arrangement to play at the Copps Coliseum.

The WHA announced on June 9 that it plans to begin its schedule in late October, but yesterday, Peter Young, the WHA's president of hockey operations, said it is more likely the six to eight-team league will not play its first game until mid-to-late November because of scheduling conflicts in some of the arenas.

Meanwhile, Gino Naldini, the front man for the Toronto franchise, has resumed talks with officials of the Ricoh Coliseum, located on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition.

Negotiations stalled this month, but Naldini said yesterday, "I'm confident we can make it work there."

The saga rolls on.

Aaryn

[Shell]

He's 17 and he is not playing for the money right now. He feels playing junior is the best way to continue to develop.

smart kid!

[Shell]

He's 17 and he is not playing for the money right now. He feels playing junior is the best way to continue to develop.

smart kid!

[Anonymous]

The Maple Leafs are moving the Baby Leafs from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Toronto. I'm assuming that this is why the WHA can't place a team there (lack of arenas).

[Anonymous]

The Maple Leafs are moving the Baby Leafs from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Toronto. I'm assuming that this is why the WHA can't place a team there (lack of arenas).

[AbNormal27]

Crosby close to new endorsement deal

Sidney Crosby is expected to sign a multi-year endorsement deal worth in excess of $1-million with Reebok / CCM, Sportsnet has learned. It will be his most significant endorsement to date. Crosby is already affiliated with Sherwood Hockey Sticks and Extreme Hockey Cards. The Rimouski star will join the likes of Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton, who are already linked to Reebok / CCM.

I was in Toronto yesterday for the Fall Sportscard & Memorabilia Expo, and Be A Player trading cards had a special redemption program there. If you bought 2 boxes of their new "Heroes & Prospects" set and opened all the packs at their booth, you were given a 1/1 memorabilia card. I watched one guy open both boxes, and he was lucky enough to pull a Crosby jersey card, numbered out of 10, from one of the packs. This started quite a buzz. BUT, he picked a number out of the bucket (to keep the redemption program random) and got the Crosby 1/1! The next thing you knew dealers were all over this guy offering everything under the sun to get that card from him. It made for an interesting afternoon.

Aaryn

[AbNormal27]

Crosby's royal rights

By Mike Ulmer

CAN SIDNEY CROSBY shop his talents to the highest bidder this summer? It's a beguiling question, considering the NHL season seems destined to be cancelled by the lockout.

No collective bargaining agreement means no season, no standings and no draft.

Where does that leave Crosby, the hottest draft-eligible player since Eric Lindros in 1991?

Theoretically, Crosby could declare himself a free agent and set his own market. Then again, theoretically, bumblebees can't possibly fly. Talk of the young star's future plans is a non-starter with both Crosby and his handlers.

"I'm just concentrating on this season," Crosby said.

"We haven't even talked about it," said his father, Troy.

"If there's no CBA, there's no draft," said Crosby's agent Pat Brisson. " At that point, we'll look at our options. I assume that when they get a CBA, they will address what to do with the players from Sidney's draft year.

This would mark the first time since 1969 when the draft was instituted that an entire season was lost to labour problems.

Assuming Crosby wins his second consecutive scoring title -- he led the Q with 15 goals and 31 assists for 46 points over just 20 games -- there seems little point in him returning to junior hockey.

Crosby spurned the advances of the fledgling WHA. There is nowhere to play in North America. That leaves Europe or, perhaps, a legal challenge from lawyers to declare Crosby a free agent, regardless of what the owners say.

Said BarryTrapp, the Leafs director of amateur scouting: "You have to have a draft, otherwise, what a bidding war over Sidney Crosby."

Aaryn

[AbNormal27]

Hockey's young prince

By MIKE ULMER

There were maybe 100 kids, many of them pressed against a barricade at the Moncton Arena, all of them peering at a dressing room door. On the other side, Canada's best working hockey player wept.

Sidney Crosby, the 17-year-old star of the Rimouski Ocenanic, had delivered another three-point night. Now, it was time for his dad, Troy, to tell him.

Kenny Schrum, Sidney's grandfather on his father's side, suffered a heart attack on Nov. 28 at age 64.

He died a few hours before Sidney was to take the ice on Halloween night.

Crosby has not been inoculated against grief. No one in his life had ever died before.

"Nothing can prepare you," Troy Crosby said later. "You just have to go through it."

And then Crosby did what he was supposed to do. He wiped his face dry and went to sign autographs.

He asked only one consideration. Please no photos. His eyes were blood red.

"I was pretty shook up," Crosby said.

"But we only get to Moncton a couple of times and I knew I wouldn't get a second chance to sign for those kids."

Sidney Crosby, who Wayne Gretzky predicted would break his NHL scoring records, understands the duty incumbent with his standing as hockey's young prince.

A unique talent, he is nonetheless related by lineage to a succession of Canadian hockey stars who dwarfed the junior towns they played in before their careers flowed to the great cities as a spring must trickle into the ocean.

Quebec City produced Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur. Oshawa can still claim Bobby Orr and Eric Lindros. The Soo basked in Wayne Gretzky's brilliance. Mario Lemieux put Laval on the map. Vincent Lecavalier's No. 4 and Brad Richards' No. 39 hang from the wooden rafters in Rimouski and someday, Sidney Crosby's No. 87 will as well.

But despite Crosby's obvious standing as the best 17-year-old player on the planet, the future seems less assured than before and the journey has grown harder.

Crosby's stunning performance last season as a 16-year-old left him little room for improvement. There is internal and external pressure to better the 54 goals and 135 points he recorded en route to becoming the youngest scoring champ in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League history.

"It's definitely different," Crosby said as he stole a few minutes in a spare room at the rink. "In the first year in the league, you don't have a lot of exposure to the league and every game is a new adventure.

"You're playing new teams, you're in buildings you haven't seen before."

You also are still, in some measure, an unknown.

"I think he's feeling a lot more pressure this year," said Doris Labonte, the Oceanic's coach/general manager.

"Last year, he was a 16-year-old coming into the league and what he was doing was appreciated, but now everyone in the hockey world is expecting a lot more."

Crosby agrees.

"This year, it's a lot more serious. It's my draft year and the team is under a lot of pressure to perform."

What was to have been his coronation, the NHL entry draft in Ottawa, seems destined to be vapourized by the NHL lockout leaving Crosby in an uncharted limbo.

Rimouski is a three-hour drive east from Quebec City. It is a nice enough place, built at the narrows of the St. Lawrence River and the entire north side of the city has been given over to a long concrete boardwalk. If you stand there -- and Crosby has -- and stare at the endless horizon, you must take it on faith that the rest of the world exists.

This is where Sidney Crosby is now.

en minutes spent watching Sidney Crosby and you understand what all the attention is about.

He is an electrifying talent.

"Make no mistake, he's a marquee player, a special player," said Barry Trapp, the Maple Leafs director of amateur scouting.

His skating is, in fact, a composite, gleaned from different elements of the hockey world.

Like former Leaf Dave Keon, Crosby has been gifted with a perfect skating stride.

Crosby's first steps are explosive. He takes off like a Russian. He owns the breakaway speed so prominent among American stars and the low centre of gravity that characterizes skaters from Finland and Sweden.

"The thing about Sidney, the biggest thing, is how strong he is on the puck," his teammate Eric Neilson said. "Watch him in the corner or in front of the net, it takes an awful lot to move him off. He's phenomenally strong on his skates."

Crosby has fabulous instincts and while he often doesn't take his team's faceoffs, he is a true centreman. His instinct is pass first, shoot second.

The Oceanic are a defensively-porous .500 team. You stop Sidney Crosby, you take home bragging rights along with your two points. Some nights, Crosby is shadowed -- a la Bobby Hull -- from the moment his skates hit the ice to the moment he climbs back over the boards.

"Everyone wants to make a name for himself and be the one who shut down Sidney Crosby," Trapp said. "I think it's just remarkable how he has handled it."

The Oceanic claim he is routinely mauled and run at and lost its franchise player for four games after a knee-on-knee hit. Crosby wasn't near the puck when he was hit by Frederik Cabana of the Halifax Mooseheads on October 1.

Cabana got eight games for the hit, which left Crosby with a severe charleyhorse.

"I think that was fair," Crosby said of the suspension. "I wasn't near the puck and he had been following me around the whole night."

"Sidney," said Labonte, who threatened to sit his star player out in the rougher rinks last season, "is like a boxer who has to fight an different opponent every night."

idney Crosby is good company. There is a genuineness to him. One writer said the dominant memory of Crosby from last year's World Juniors in Helsinki wasn't watching the young star assert himself as one of the top Canadians with two goals and three assists while seeing spot duty over six games. It was watching him walking around the airport in Helsinki, holding the hand of his eight-year-old sister.

"He's the kid every mom would want," Labonte said.

"He asks a lot of himself. He's the first guy in the room, the first guy in the drills.

"He has got a lot of respect for the players around him."

Duty, to his future and to himself, has long since shaped his life.

"To me, that's not work," Crosby said.

"That's what I want to do and the kind of player I want to be."

Crosby left Cole Harbour a suburb of Dartmouth at 14 for Shattuck-St. Mary's, a prep school, 30 minutes from Minneapolis.

"It was time for me to find a different challenge and continue to develop," he said. "I had played midget at home and there really wasn't that many places to go."

This is one of the many ways in which Crosby differs from Wayne Gretzky.

"I didn't leave Brantford to be a better hockey player," Gretzky said this week. "The hockey was the same in Brantford as it was in Toronto. But Brantford was a small centre and I was really under a microscope. I wanted to live in Toronto and be a normal teenager."

Gretzky wore 99 as a homage to Gordie Howe. Crosby wears 87 because his birthday is the eighth month (August) and the seventh day and he was born in 1987. In hockey, the only thing more important than a player statistics is his birth year. It's how players are compared. Everyone in the game knows an '87 birth year is eligible for this year's draft.

The lockout is the one low blow Crosby can't fight through.

"I can't really think about next year," he said, "that's a long way off."

"I don't think it's affected him," his agent Pat Brisson said. "He's busy focussing on being the best player he can be every night."

Crosby, of course, could focus himself by taking aim at scoring records. But unlike Gretzky, Crosby is not motivated by statistics.

"My job is to set up players and put the puck in the net, but records are something I don't think about," Crosby said. "The points will come from hard work."

And while Crosby's crowning moment seems destined to be denied, his responsibilities remain undiminished. He is adamant that he will earn his high-school diploma and takes four to five hours a day of private tutoring at home.

Sidney Crosby's job is to score three or four points a night, lead an ordinary team deep into the playoffs, shake off a legion of checkers whose only goal is to see him stopped, disappoint no one, from the smallest kid to the most finicky scout and then lead Canada to the World Junior title over Christmas. He makes $35 dollars a week.

"Jean Beliveau went through it, Guy Lafleur went through it, Mario went through it, Bobby Orr went through it, I went through it," Gretzky said. "Your obligation is to be the best player you can be but with that comes responsibility. I was lucky. I had Gordie Howe showing me the ropes and he was the best. But I always said, signing autographs always beats working."

"For a 17-year-old kid, it's a huge responsibility," Brisson said. "He's a kid, living an adult life and he has so many responsibilities. People have high expectations and he wants to deliver on them."

How well he does will determine the player, the person, he becomes.

"By the time they reach 17 and 18 years of age, a person's character has been strongly influenced," said Paul Dennis, the Leafs player development coach. "Strong character means the athlete has certain tendencies toward valour, persistence, integrity, leadership, emotional control, love and humanity. Obviously these traits are nurtured as the athlete grows older and more experienced, but if they demonstrate these traits early enough, then dealing with adversity later is much easier to handle."

Sidney Crosby insists he will get through to the other side. This is the life he worked for. He's not complaining. But there is an adage that applies in a way it didn't before to hockey's young prince: Be careful what you ask for. You just may get it.

Still, for all the responsibility, there remains, in his life, the salvation of play.

"It's not a job to me yet," he said. "I'm still playing for the fun. I love the game."

Aaryn

[puck_it]

im assuming nov 28th was meant to be oct 28. sad no less...

*please dont get corrupted, please dont get corrupted*

[SoCalcaniac]

Crosby close to new endorsement deal

Sidney Crosby is expected to sign a multi-year endorsement deal worth in excess of $1-million with Reebok / CCM, Sportsnet has learned. It will be his most significant endorsement to date. Crosby is already affiliated with Sherwood Hockey Sticks and Extreme Hockey Cards. The Rimouski star will join the likes of Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton, who are already linked to Reebok / CCM.

I was in Toronto yesterday for the Fall Sportscard & Memorabilia Expo, and Be A Player trading cards had a special redemption program there. If you bought 2 boxes of their new "Heroes & Prospects" set and opened all the packs at their booth, you were given a 1/1 memorabilia card. I watched one guy open both boxes, and he was lucky enough to pull a Crosby jersey card, numbered out of 10, from one of the packs. This started quite a buzz. BUT, he picked a number out of the bucket (to keep the redemption program random) and got the Crosby 1/1! The next thing you knew dealers were all over this guy offering everything under the sun to get that card from him. It made for an interesting afternoon.

Aaryn

Thanks for that and the great article on Crosby by Ulmer- really interesting life that kid is living. Whoever gets him..... ooooooh.....
OMG- that's pretty crazy ALREADY and with the draft 'up in the air' the card dealers are already going crazy??? Hubby is a card nut- has an ebay store and everything- I'll have to tell him this little tid-bit as we were just talking about the 'Crosby factor' and what will happen when his NHL rookie card will do..... probably set all records..... LOL.......