The Rookie, A Season With Sidney Crosby And The New NHL
As a Canadian, many people dream of making it to the National Hockey League, to play for there favorite team as they are growing up but only a select few ever get this chance. They make there own backyard hockey rinks, find a pond to play on during there free time, and play road hockey during the summer. Sidney Crosby is one of the few Canadian players that get to live out their childhood dream and he completed it in February 2010 at the Olympics playing for his country.
In 1987, a new hockey legend was born in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia with a lovely family that later on added a daughter to the group. Troy Crosby, Sidneys dad, was a goalie and played juniors so he knew what it was like to go threw the stuff his son was faced with and he never forced him to play or train as much as he did. Sidney was born with a gift, a gift that very few people have, his gift was to love hockey and love hockey he did.
It all started when he was a young player at the age of 2 when he would shoot hockey pucks in the dryer in his basement, then by the age of 3 he was skating, and had the fire in his heart to carry on with his hockey career to be. He would later on play Midget AAA and end up being a leading scorer of the league but most of all, he was 14 years old playing with 17 year olds. After an unbelievable year, most people didn’t know about all the abuse and harassment Sidney would have to face. No kid should have to be ashamed and scared to show his face in public with his hockey jersey on his back at tournaments because of people coming up to him and harassing him due to his talent. In reaction of these situations, Sidney decides to leave and play in Minnesota for a year in 2002 and leads his team to the U.S. Championships.
The following year, he gets drafted to the Quebec Majors Junior Hockey League and plays for the Rimouski Oceanic. The team discovers Sidney talent after the first game, as he records 8 points and they compare him to Darryl Sittler. He has an outstanding rookie year as he is Player of the week six times, Player of the month three times and Canadian Hockey League player of the week three times. He is also the first player to earn Player of the year, Top Rookie, and Top scorer with 54 goals, 81 assists in 59 games which is an incredible and outstanding performance that will be remembered for years. After a great year, a team from Hamilton offers him 7.5 million dollars for 3 years to play for the World Hockey Association, but he turns down the offer and says he isn’t ready to leave the juniors and stays with Rimouski for another season.
In 2005, Sidney was the first overall pick in the National Hockey League draft and was drafted to Pittsburg. Half way threw the season a new coach is assigned and names Crosby an Alternative Captain and wear the letter “A” on his jersey and once again takes a lot of heat from the hockey community saying that as an 18 year old, he is too young and doesn’t have the experience to wear that “A” on his jersey. After his first season as a professional player, he would set a great impression on the league as a rookie with 102 points in a season that broke his franchises record by someone he is compared to a lot Mario Lemieux. Also that year, he would go on to win a gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Grand Forks, USA.
His next huge accomplishment was in the season of 2008-2009 where he led his team to win the Stanley Cup, the biggest reward you can receive in hockey history. He is the youngest captain in history to win the Stanley cup at 21 years old. After winning the game, players from the Detroit Red Wings criticize the young player and claiming he has bad sportsmanship for not shaking the hands of players on the team, most importantly, their captain Nicklas Lindstrom as they took offence to that action.
The awards Sidney has received in the past 8 years have been awards from Midget to the NHL and also the IIHF. He has received almost 60 awards of all different types such as a Stanley Cup, a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Most Valuable Player, Leading Scorer, and the list goes on and on.
Going from shooting puck in the basement to scoring the game winning goal at the 2010 Olympics in overtime to win the gold it has been a long life with its ups and downs. Many people expect so much from the young player and only time will tell what is to come from him. Could he be the next Wayne Gretzky?
