Crosby making a career of golden moments

The baby face of the National Hockey League couldn't stop sobbing seven months ago, when Sidney Crosby brought it all back home.

On his 22nd birthday last August, the youngest captain to lead an NHL team to a Stanley Cup returned to his Nova Scotia hometown packing hardware.

An estimated crowd of 25,000 - not too shabby in a town of 26,000 - turned out to honor Pittsburgh's remarkable center during a parade that led to Cole Harbour Place, the dual-rink facility where Crosby honed the skills that made him the top overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Alex Ovechkin had been selected No. 1 by the Capitals the previous year, shortly after the Lightning won the Cup.

With Crosby registering three points in Game 7, Pittsburgh beat Washington last spring in the Eastern Conference semifinals, cementing the most intense NHL rivalry since Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux dueled for hockey supremacy across a dozen seasons.

Crosby, who leads the Atlantic Division-leading Penguins into Tampa today, entered a wobbly league coming off a canceled season.

Hockey fans seeking a reason to believe fell quickly for Sid the Kid, whose overtime goal against the U.S. two weeks ago today lifted Team Canada to Olympic gold and nudged Crosby into the pages of history.

"Every 15 or 20 years," Gretzky said, "a real special athlete jumps into the NHL. Crosby makes everybody around him better. He loves the game and he's great for the NHL. They're lucky to have him."

On that summer day in Nova Scotia, Crosby tried to keep his emotions in check after he walked off a military helicopter hoisting the Cup.

He could handle seeing his proud parents, Troy and Trina, and his two grandmothers, but when Crosby spotted a 5-year-old boy and an 85-year-old woman in the crowd, both cheering and clapping for him, tears flowed.

And flowed some more.

"It's almost like a dream," Crosby said that unforgettable day. "You don't think it's real."

That breakdown on the streets of Cole Harbour was a rare peek behind Crosby's emotional curtain.

He prides himself on keeping his cool, regardless of the stakes.

Watching the unforgettable gold medal game, Lemieux turned to his wife just before overtime began and predicted Crosby would score the winning goal.

Just another brick in a wall of fame.

"I think he has carried himself as well as you can for what we put on him," Lemieux said. "It's been there ever since he was very young. He has the maturity, the way he was raised, to prepare him for handling attention. He's a special player and a special person."

Crosby's No. 87 jersey ranks No. 1 in NHL merchandise sales and he's a drawing card in NHL rinks from Sunrise to Vancouver.

"It's early in his career, and everybody tries to compare, but Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux did it for years and years," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "But I'll tell you what, the guy has already been to the finals, he's won a Stanley Cup and scored the game-winning goal for a gold medal. If his career ended now, that's pretty damn good."

Only Crosby could have caused a recent stir by turning down a request to appear on David Letterman's late-night talk show to present a Top 10 list.

"I do my best, that's all I can do," Crosby said of trying to accommodate countless requests for his time. "It's not the first year I've dealt with balancing everything. I've had that responsibility for a long time and I think anybody who knows me real well knows I take that seriously."

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma can't believe anyone would criticize Crosby for snubbing Letterman.

"The demands on his time, inside our room and our organization, to our city, to outside our city when we go to other places, is extraordinary," Bylsma said.

Crosby's contributions extend well beyond the ice, where he has already won a scoring title and a league MVP award.

"There is no one in the history of the game, not even Gretzky or Lemieux, who has done more to promote the game than Sidney Crosby," Penguins GM Ray Shero said.

The Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry, likened by some to the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson duel that defined the resurgence of the NBA in the 1980s, may be stoked by another epic playoff faceoff this spring.

For Penguins forward Max Talbot, the verdict is already in.

"You can compare Sid to Ovechkin as much as you want," Talbot said. "Maybe at the end of their careers, Ovechkin's going to have more points. Good for him. Sidney's going to win more Stanley Cups. That makes him the better player, the better leader."

Lightning founder Phil Esposito played alongside Bobby Orr and against Gretzky and Gordie Howe during his Hall of Fame career.

While he's not quite ready to place Crosby in that pantheon of hockey immortals, Esposito is impressed.

"Crosby can do everything," Esposito said. "I like him a lot. He's a real good leader and ambassador for the game of hockey. The kid's the total package. And one more thing - he's smarter than a whip."