Derek21 Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 This is a great read on Crosby. It's got a lot of detail and some excellent quotes from the kid and Gretzky. If he's as good as Spezza is already, then he'll be special. http://nl4@nhl.com/columns/adams/wjc122203.html World Juniors are Crosby's coming-out party By Alan Adams NHL.com columnist December 22, 2003 You have to think Team Canada officials knew what they were doing when they had Sidney Crosby room with Jeff Tambellini at training camp in preparation for the World Junior Hockey Championship in Helsinki, Finland. You have to think back 25 years to get the picture. Wayne Gretzky was a 16-year-old phenom and his roommate was Steve Tambellini, who is Jeff's father. Crosby is 16 and the similarities were not lost on Jeff. "I talked to my dad about it and he said that even though Wayne was this great talent back then, he was nervous and expressed that he was just happy to be included in a group of good players," said Jeff Tambellini, who plays for the University of Michigan. "Sidney was the same way. He was nervous and excited. I just tried to get him to relax. We've had a blast together (through the six days of the selection camp)." Crosby wasn't a lock to make Team Canada's roster, but he showed during a four-day camp that he can more than keep pace with elite players who are two and three years older than he is. "He did two things for me," said Team Canada Head Scout Blair Mackasey. "He showed that he can keep up to the tempo; that he did not have to change his play at this speed. And the most important thing is he proved he can compete physically against these kids and that was more than obvious at the camp." "I just think now that the team has been named, he will get better." If there was anyone on Canada's roster who knows how to play against older opponents, it's Crosby. He's been doing it since he was seven years old. Crosby started skating when he was two and began playing organized hockey three years later. He's always moved up to play at a higher level and it has never taken him long to adjust and dominate the new game. When he was 10, he scored 159 goals in 55 games in atom and finished the season in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, with 280 points. At 14, he was playing with kids as old as 17 in a Tier II junior league while also playing AAA midget in nearby Dartmouth, where he recorded a jaw-dropping 193 points in 74 games. Last season, Crosby put up unimaginable numbers with Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota in the U.S. prep school ranks. He established records by notching 72 goals and 162 points in 57 games and led his club to the national title. "I think I could have done better. That's the way I look at it. I like scoring goals and setting guys up but at the same time I look back and think I could have put more in. That's why you play, to help your team win and put the puck in the net and set up guys," says Crosby, who with 33 goals and 76 points in 33 games was the leading scorer in Canadian major junior hockey when he left for Team Canada's training camp. "I am hard on myself and I want to the best and I want to make things happen. If I get a goal, I want to get two. "I do not like sitting back," Crosby continues. "I like initiating the play and if I am the first guy in there, I do not mind going in and battling it and taking a hit or whatever. I want to play my hardest. I can't go out there and play scared. I have to go out there and show I am ready to go in the corner with the 6-foot-3 guy who weighs more and is bigger. I love battling and makes thing happen." But the player Wayne Gretzky described as "dynamite" and the best player No. 99 has seen since Mario Lemieux is not just a scoring machine. A lot of people see Crosby as a finesse player, but finesse is just one of the tools of his game. Crosby has tremendous speed and most of the plays he initiates are done off speed. He competes as hard and he has a locomotive drive to win at all costs. Gretzky had a chance to see Crosby first-hand last summer. They played on the same line for a handful of days at a summer camp in Los Angeles and "The Great One" was impressed. "I have not seen a young guy like that come along in a long time who has the passion to play hockey as much as he has. And that makes it fun to be around him. As good as he is, he loves the game even more," says Gretzky. "The thing I like most about him is he loves hockey. He is on the ice all day long and he loves to play. He is the real deal. He can play. I tell you this: He is as good as anyone I have seen in a long time and he loves the game which is most important." Crosby's earliest memory of hockey centers around the basement in his parent's home in Cole Harbour, which is near Halifax. There was a washer and dryer on one side of the room and a cement wall on the other. Crosby had a small piece of Plexiglas on the floor and he would spend hours ripping shots at the wall. By the time he was six, he outgrew the room. The puck would hit the wall and bounce back. The solution was to move the Plexiglas to outside the doorway and take aim through the opening. "That worked but there were a lot of marks on the door frame. I also remember my grandmother sitting in a chair in the family room. She wasn't very old and she played goalie and could move pretty good. I'd shoot on her. I was everyone, Lemieux, Gretzky, Yzerman." Crosby knows he is good but not gone to his head. Crosby understands there are expectations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devils731 Posted December 25, 2003 Share Posted December 25, 2003 It all sounds good, if he is as good as people hope he is going to be maybe his dominance will be a resurgance for NHL ratings. Lets just hope whomever becomes his GM doesn't call him the savior of hockey or annoint him the next Gretzky or some silly suck pressure. -Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Devil Posted December 25, 2003 Share Posted December 25, 2003 Does anyone know if the WJC's can be seen on Center Ice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas0nMacIsaac Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 No it can't, a couple local fox stations are showing USA games but not live. USAHOCKEY.com will have an audio cast for every USA game. They open today at 11 est vs Austria, should be a blowout and I hope Parise dominates. I will be watching the Canada/Finland game which is the game of the day, I get that on TSN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratsgirl Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 (edited) Center Ice will be showing some of the games, but I don't think all of them will be broadcast. I checked my Center Ice lineup this morning, and today it looks like they have Canada-Finland on the schedule at 11am. Which totally stinks, since I'm at work Edited December 26, 2003 by ratsgirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Puddy Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 Too bad I'm at home where I don't have center ice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 Too bad I'm at home where I don't have center ice. Yeah. It sucks being home for the holidays. (-: I also have no Centre Ice. I do get the world junior games on TSN, but I'm gonna miss *5* Devils games. Ah, the sacrifices you have to make for family.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 Yah, Center Ice will show some games. I wonder if the YES Network will show the Team USA games like it did last time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheeps Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 I'll be able to see the quarterfinals, semifinals, and Gold Medal game... nooch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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