Sidney Crosby entered his 20th NHL season on Wednesday, but he and the Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t have the best start to the 2024-25 campaign.
The Penguins have missed the playoffs for two consecutive seasons in the NHL and suffered a devastating 6-0 loss in the season-opener against the New York Rangers last night. Sidney Crosby had two shots in 20:59 of ice time, and if the Penguins want anything to do with the playoffs this season, they’ll need their captain at his very best.
Last year, he carried the Penguins on his shoulders, recording a whopping 94 points as a 36-year-old. Crosby is still one of the league’s top players and has been so since his debut year in the league 20 years ago.
Crosby was a generational talent. Dubbed ’The Next One,’ he recorded 102 points in his debut season in the NHL, and since then, he’s cemented his place among hockey’s greatest of all time. Crosby ranks tenth for most points in NHL history and will likely be ninth after this season, just behind Mario Lemieux.
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It didn’t come as a huge surprise that Crosby would make it big in the NHL. During Wednesday’s NHL on TNT broadcast, Wayne Gretzky shared an incredible story about seeing Crosby skating during a camp held by an agency shortly after he retired.
”When I retired in 1999, IMG used to do this camp in Ventura County, and they’d bring in all the first-rounders,” Gretzky said.
”I went and watched some practice one day, and I was watching them, looking at all the kids, and I said, ’Who’s the little guy out there?’
”They goes, ’You know, that’s this kid Sidney Crosby, he’s 14.’ And I said, ’Well, he’s the best player on the ice already!’”
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Wayne Gretzky said that Crosby was such a great talent that he decided to bring his gear the following day, only to skate with him.
”So the next day, I came over, and I got my equipment on, and I said, ’I want to skate with him.’ I could still skate a little bit then because I just retired. Now I can’t.
”But everyone knew he was that good when he was young. And the way he handles himself off the ice … he’s just been one of the classiest guys. He’s like John Beliveau, just one of the classiest men who ever played our game, and one of the great players in our game.”
What a story from The Great One!
