He spent 119-day NHL lockout playing hockey with his hometown Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kontinental Hockey League. Childhood friends attended every Metallurg home game, after which Malkin always devoured borscht at his parents' house.
“My mom came to every (home) game,” Malkin said Tuesday after the Penguins' final full practice of an abbreviated training camp.
The Russian road was rougher.
Some of Metallurg's closest opponents played in cities five hours away by plane. Often, Malkin was greeted at the team hotel by a horde of fans wanting autographs — and they also showed up at restaurants.
Games provided solace, especially because his two great NHL friends, Sergei Gonchar (Ottawa) and Nikolai Kulemin, were Metallurg teammates. However, his standing as the world's finest hockey player made Malkin a constant postgame target of traveling Magnitogorsk reporters and the local media in every city that welcomed Metallurg.
“I understand now how hard it is for Sid,” Malkin said, referring to Penguins teammate Sidney Crosby. “He does such a great job. It is hard. I get it.”
Malkin was the face of Metallurg and the KHL, as Crosby is the Penguins and the NHL.
Admittedly, Malkin “started slow” with Metallurg, but he was second in KHL scoring when the NHL lockout tentatively ended Jan. 6. He finished that season with 23 goals and 65 points in 37 games.
Over the last 12 months, playing in the NHL and KHL — widely regarded as the planet's two finest leagues — Malkin has scored 55 goals and recorded 133 points in 75 games.
During the lockout, Crosby described the level at which Malkin has played as “awesome.”
“Geno, really, can do whatever he wants when he's playing his game,” Crosby said. “What he did last season was pretty incredible when you think about it.”
For the uninitiated, or anybody who may have simply put Malkin out of mind when he was out of sight and out of the country, a recap of his last NHL season:
He missed seven of the Penguins' first 11 games, his surgically repaired right knee having flared up in the second game at Calgary. By the date of Crosby's heralded return from concussion symptoms Nov. 21, Malkin had produced five goals and 14 points in 13 games.
He finished with 50 goals, a career best, and 109 points in 75 games — or 45 goals and 95 points over his final 62 contests, a 1.53 per-game average during that span.
“And he did that after tearing two ligaments (anterior and medial collateral),” Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said about Malkin's injury in February 2011.
“People act like what (Minnesota Vikings running back) Adrian Peterson did after his knee injury was amazing. They don't realize Geno did the same thing, and basically wasn't right for the first two months last season.”
Malkin no longer wears protective gear on the right knee. He again welcomed Penguins strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar to Moscow over the summer to oversee offseason training.
Malkin lives in Moscow because he can easily get lost in Russia's capital, which is home to about 11.5 million. Magnitogorsk, where his parents and brother, Denis, still live, is a city of about 407,000.
“He never wants to be the biggest man in town,” said Gonchar, who shares a floor of an apartment complex with Malkin in Moscow.
Malkin felt like the biggest man in every KHL town Metallurg visited, save for Moscow.
He was not just a two-time NHL scoring champion, the reigning MVP, or a winner of the Stanley Cup. He is a fiercely proud Russian who led the national team to a 2012 World Championships win, leading the tournament in scoring.
“He's like a hero there,” Kulemin said of Malkin in Russia.
Malkin has nearly reached that status in Pittsburgh, the only city other than Magnitogorsk he has called home. Both cities are known for being the steel capitals of their respective countries. The people of each are proudly provincial, and they treat their brightest hockey stars as civic institutions.
That is not an honor made for Malkin, who Gonchar described as “smart, funny, big-hearted, but also very private.”
“Evgeni would like to play hockey, and he can be the best hockey player,” Gonchar said. “But maybe he would like best to do it out of the spotlight.”
Malkin, though, can no longer stand in the shadows — and not because he is 11th all-time in NHL history with 1.23 points per game, the high for any Russian.
Malkin will turn 27 on July 31.
By then, he likely will have either signed one of the richest contracts in Pittsburgh sports history or be uncomfortably heading down a path toward becoming the most coveted free agent in hockey.
The Penguins, because of the new NHL labor contract, can offer Malkin a maximum eight-year extension that could total about $102.9 million. General manager Ray Shero has been directed by ownership to keep Malkin with the Penguins through the duration of his career.
The thought of that possibility — playing alongside Crosby and annually chasing the Stanley Cup — drew a wide smile from Malkin on Tuesday.
A pause quickly followed.
“We'll see,” he said. “(I) can't say what will happen. I want to play in (the) NHL. Two years left on (my) contract, but I want to play in (the) NHL.”
Malkin stressed that by in the NHL, he specifically meant “with Pittsburgh.”
Still, there is the dangling carrot of a tax-free, whopping-cash contract in the KHL.
“(I will) not talk about it,” Malkin said of his future. “I play for Pittsburgh for two more years. Of course, I hope more. Many more.”
It is 11 p.m., and the lights are low in Suite 66 on ice level at Consol Energy Center. The lounge, not long ago filled with happy fans watching a Pittsburgh Penguins intrasquad game, is empty save for the workers cleaning up.
Pictures of Penguins owner Mario Lemieux are on the wall. Sticks, miniature Stanley Cups, league trophies and other paraphernalia mark this area as a kind of shrine to the player and the game.
At a small table, Sidney Crosby sits, gray toque pulled over his head. He has showered and eaten after the game. His teammates have all departed, as have the youngsters up from the Penguins' AHL affiliate who fleshed out the rosters for what will be the last real hockey experience before the truncated 2013 NHL season opens Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia against the Penguins' archrivals, the Flyers.
In this moment, the building slowly easing itself into sleep, there is anticipation and introspection, a sense of a story about to resume.
This is fair given that the story of Sidney Crosby is a story interrupted.
Excited? Heck yeah, he's excited.
The lockout is over. The concussion problems that limited him to 22 regular-season games since early January 2011 appear to be a thing of the past. Bring it on.
"You realize over that period of time that you just want to compete and be with your team and go through all the normal things that an NHL season brings. I'm just excited for that," Crosby said.
"I always thought I appreciated the game; I'd be the first one to say that I don't think I took it for granted. I've always worked hard and realized how lucky I am and tried to make the most of my opportunity to play in the NHL.
"But all that being said, I think I do appreciate it even more than I did before. Going through that, I think anyone would probably feel the same way. It's tough when you can't play. You get used to that, and then I think you realize how much passion you do have for the game and how much you do love it."
Take the paint away from a painter, and what is he? Is he still an artist?
Take the money away from a businessman; is he still that?
Take the game away from a player like Crosby -- and take Crosby away from a game that had come to depend on him on many levels -- and what is left? Those are difficult questions to answer.
For the past two years, what looked to be a path made entirely and utterly of glittering promise -- a scoring title, a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, a Stanley Cup win, a gold medal -- had become something entirely different, something far less certain.
It was just more than two years ago, on Jan. 1, 2011, that Crosby suffered a concussion in the Winter Classic, not far from this dressing room. After trying to play in the next game, he missed the balance of the 2010-11 season and the playoffs, then missed all but 22 games last season.
When he did play, he was electric, with 37 points in those 22 games, but Crosby and the Penguins -- made heavy Cup favorites when Crosby returned for good in March -- were dislodged with relative ease by the cross-state Flyers in six games.
That disappointment was followed by a lockout that threatened this season but was resolved in time to salvage a 48-game schedule.
But although the Crosby story, at least the one we anticipated, was interrupted, his story hasn't stopped. He wasn't cryogenically entombed until all of this passed and he could resume his assault on record books and opposing goaltenders.
No. In fact, maybe it's less a story interrupted than a story diverted.
During the lockout, for instance, Crosby was instrumental in organizing player gatherings in Dallas and Phoenix. There, he helped organize the players into teams for workouts and scrimmages.
And of course there was Crosby's presence in the lockout. He was visible and engaged, and at one point it looked as if he, agent Pat Brisson and Pittsburgh owner Ron Burkle might single-handedly prove to be catalysts to a deal in December.
These were moments not lost on the hockey world.
"In my experience, hockey players are great teammates and are going to help another hockey player when they need it," Buffalo Sabres netminder Ryan Miller, whom Crosby worked out with in California in the offseason, told ESPN.com via email. "Given the situation, it was important for all of us to train together, negotiate together and be a teammate in the sense that we are all just hockey players at the heart of this. I thought Sid did a really great job of understanding that he was needed and he could be a good 'teammate' by representing the players.
"He was firmly on the players' side, and he was able to communicate calmly within the NHLPA and with the media about the lockout. Smart and well spoken, but everyone knows that. It isn't easy to be called upon by your team, the league, your union, your sponsors, the fans, the media, your friends and family to always have the right perspective and say something useful, and he does it very well."
Longtime NHLer and national broadcast analyst Ray Ferraro is unequivocal about what he thinks Crosby is about to achieve on the ice.
"Oh, I think Sid's going to win the scoring title," Ferraro told ESPN.com.
After Crosby got "sidetracked" by all the shenanigans in the first round of the playoffs last season, a series Ferraro calls among the most bizarre he has ever encountered, Ferraro believes that folks won't see that from Crosby again.
As with all things Crosby, though, he transcends what is actually accomplished on the ice. And Ferraro, who played 1,258 regular-season games, said Crosby's profile during the lockout sent an important message about the players' resolve.
"Yes, I thought it was really important for Sid to be involved. And it wasn't like he was standing in the corner," Ferraro said.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma tries to pinpoint what, if anything, has changed with his captain over the past two years. It is a sign that whatever changes we are talking about are subtle, perhaps lost to all but those who spend a lot of time with a player largely regarded as the best in the world.
"I don't think he seems different. That wouldn't be the way I'd phrase it at all," Bylsma told ESPN.com. "I don't know if it's the aging process, but he's not necessarily Sid the Kid anymore. He's getting older. I think there's more maturity, and I think that's what you see.
"On the ice, you see the same kind of work ethic and speed and determination and playing and practicing that way. But I think in his leadership and in the room, there's a little more, you see a little bit more of an older veteran. And I don't want to use the word 'veteran' because he's still not that old, but you see that a little bit in talking to him and his demeanor. And I also see a guy who's really close right now to doing what he really loves to do, and that's playing hockey. And that's not just practicing hockey, it's playing hockey, and you kind of get that sense where time has passed."
Part of it is the natural passage of time. But the evolution of Sidney Crosby, the player and the person, also has been shaped by his time away from the game, especially his time away because of injury. For a long time, Crosby would naturally avoid putting himself in the public eye. He often ate in his room on the road because he feared being a distraction to his teammates if he was out with them. In some cities, he entered and exited hotels through back doors and loading docks.
Now, though, you are far more likely to bump into Crosby in a local grocery store or taking in a movie with his pals than ever before.
"You wouldn't have caught me in a grocery store a few years ago, especially at times when it's pretty busy, or movies on a Friday night, stuff like that I probably would typically have stayed away," Crosby said. "Now I try to just do those things and enjoy it because, like I said, I wasn't able to for a while."
After being on what he calls "lockdown" for about a year, worrying every day about recurring concussion symptoms, Crosby has chosen to embrace life, even though his celebrity has at times prompted him to be more cautious about such embraces.
"Prior to getting hurt, I probably would have erred on the side of not having to deal with crowds or things like that," he said. "But I think once you kind of feel like you're on lockdown for a year, trying to not have symptoms, just kind of resting, it's something that I think once it passes, you want to make the most of the time you have and enjoy it and be active. Even if there's places where you're going to be recognized or it's going to be crowded, I think I've probably made more of an effort just to enjoy regular things because I really didn't get to do that for about a year."
Eight years ago, the last lockout ended, and Crosby's arrival and that of chief foil Alex Ovechkin hastened hockey's revival.
Crosby recalls that first season, his rookie year in the NHL, as simply his trying to fit in and trying to meet some of the massive expectations put upon him as the No. 1 pick.
Many of those expectations have been met, of course, but it does not lessen Crosby's desire to prove himself, although his focus might be a little narrower now.
"I think, this time around, I think it's probably similar in the fact that I want to get my game back to where it was, and I haven't played a lot of games the last couple of years, so I think that's where I'm more focused on personally, what I have to do to help our team, than all the other stuff," Crosby said.
If Crosby is no longer as widely touted as the face of the game as he was eight years ago, his importance to the game has not diminished. And if the NHL is to rebound from another self-inflicted hit to its brand, it will need all the Sidney Crosby it can get.
"I think he's the guy still," national analyst Keith Jones offered. "It's tough to find another player to compare him to.
"There's a lot of responsibility that falls on Crosby, and he handles it well. I don't know if there's a more talented guy and a more interesting guy to follow," said Jones, whose perspective as a former Philadelphia Flyer and sometime Flyers analyst exposes him to the twin blades of Crosby love and hate.
"To me, Crosby has 'it.' I'm always impressed by him."
Rested, happy and finally healthy, Sidney Crosby eager for return to NHL action
Puck Daddy | January 11, 2013
Where were you at 5 a.m. ET on Sunday? Sidney Crosby was sound asleep at home in Pittsburgh. His phone buzzed. He woke, rustled in bed, grabbed the phone from the nightstand and found a three-word text message from teammate Craig Adams, the Pittsburgh Penguins' union rep.
Out of the darkness, a ray of light.
"Deal is done."
Crosby thumbed his phone furiously. He had questions, so many questions. What were the details? When do we start? He had so many questions that after a while Adams stopped responding. Adams had been up all night in New York as the NHL and NHL Players' Association reached a tentative labor agreement in a marathon negotiating session. He was tired. He was done.
But Crosby was fired up. He was getting started. Finally. He logged onto the Internet to find out whatever he could. He talked to other players to see what they had heard. He went back to bed about 8:30 a.m. – for, like, an hour. Then he spent the entire day talking to teammates and buddies and whoever else, as if he were a prison inmate granted his release and an unlimited voice plan.
"Yeah, I'm just excited," Crosby said. "I just want to get in that first game and get going. I know it's probably going to take a couple to feel good, but I'm just excited for the opportunity."
Excited? Exciting? Crosby said the words over and over again. He never stopped smiling as he spoke in the Penguins' dressing room this week at Consol Energy Center, back in his old spot, back in his old routine. Training camp starts Sunday. The season starts just six days later, with the Penguins reportedly visiting their cross-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers.
"Just the anticipation, all those things kind of one after the other, is exciting," Crosby said.
Especially after all the things that have happened to Crosby one after the other – reaching a new level, suffering a concussion, struggling to recover, seeking out unorthodox treatment, coming back, suffering a setback, identifying a neck problem, coming back again, training hard over the summer, feeling better than ever before, getting locked out, getting involved in talks … getting sick of practicing and riding the emotional roller coaster and waiting to do the one thing he wants to do.
Crosby, the face of the game of hockey, has played only 28 hockey games in more than two years.
"He seems so happy," said Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen, who skated with Crosby during the lockout. "He comes to the rink every day, puts in a ton of work. He's having fun. You can tell he's hungry to play. I'm sure he more than any of us just can't wait to start playing games again."
"I'm with him every day," said Penguins winger Pascal Dupuis. "I work out with him on the ice every day. This guy not playing for three months was a shame. Now that the game's going to be back on …"
Dupuis paused for effect.
"Watch out."
Thanks to his injury and the lockout, Crosby has lost a huge chunk of his career. He will never get it back – the games he didn't play, the goals he didn't score, the points he didn't produce. That will affect his place in history. There is nothing he can do about that now.
But he has already made plenty of history – the Stanley Cup and Golden Goal, the MVP and scoring title and goal-scoring title. And with his injury and the lockout behind him, he has a chance to make plenty more history and help pull the NHL out of the muck once again.
He is 25 years old. Sid the Kid is no longer a kid. But he has grown as a person and should still be in his prime as a player. He is more comfortable sharing his opinion, and he wants to keep improving. He doesn't want to be only what he once was. He wants to be more.
"I never looked at the past too much when it was really good or when it didn't go well," Crosby said. "I've always tried to get better. So … I'm looking at this year and being my best, and we'll find out whatever that is."
Crosby's health will be a concern for the foreseeable future. Every time he takes a hit, people will hold their breath.
But you know when he last had concussion symptoms?
"Last year," he said.
And you know when he last saw a doctor about his head or neck?
"Uh, I couldn't even tell you," he said. "March or something like that?"
He still has an occasional headache, but like anyone else does. He doesn't freak out. There is a big difference between having a headache and suffering from concussion symptoms, and unfortunately he is experienced enough to know that difference.
Though specialists once said he needed to rewire his brain, because he had damaged the very neurological system that made him special, that work is done. He was healthy enough to come back and stay back at the end of last season, and he was able to go through a full off-season training program for the first time in two years.
"I think I've really tried to push myself to make sure that's something you don't have to think about, because that's the last thing you want to do, have those thoughts in your mind," Crosby said. "So to feel good, to be able to push yourself as much as you can, to know you're not going to get any symptoms, that's a good feeling. You feel like you're able to improve and get better when you are able to do that.
"Since the end of the summer and coming into time for camp, there was no doubt in my mind that I was ready to play and I was healthy. … Going into September, for sure, I was in the best shape I've ever been in as far as off the ice. On the ice, I felt like I was pretty much there, too."
Crosby did not give specifics – if he put on weight, if he cut body fat, if he could bench more. But Crosby said it wasn't about measurables but feel, and he felt strong and quick. He felt everything come a little bit easier.
That made the lockout even more frustrating. Off-season programs are designed to peak for training camp – and there was no training camp. Crosby couldn't keep pushing his body like he had been, not knowing when the season would start and he would need to be fresh. He didn't go play in Europe, partly because of the high cost of insuring his 12-year, $104 million contract. So he had to try to maintain his conditioning in practice, skating four times a week when in Pittsburgh, attending minicamps in Dallas, Phoenix and Vail, Colo.
As much as he loves to practice, he got tired of it. He got tired of the ups and downs of negotiations, too. He missed preparing for opponents. He missed the competition. He missed the wins and, man, even the losses. He missed his teammates. He missed the game.
"Hockey's a team sport," Crosby said. "You're not a tennis player or a golfer. … The times that were tough were more when there was a lot of buildup and you felt like it was getting close."
But if there was a blessing in disguise, it was this: extra time for his brain to rewire, extra time to add to his arsenal.
"It can't hurt," Crosby said. "It can't hurt not having to get hit. I mean, if I could take anything out of it, maybe it is that. … I feel like I was able to work on some skills that maybe you wouldn't necessarily get that much time to work on. So you try to make the best of the situation."
Crosby has been famous for improving parts of his game each season – his face-offs one year, his shot another. This time, he focused on speed.
"He looks like himself," Niskanen said. "The highlight-reel-type goals that we're all used to, you're starting to see that, where he's really creative. He'll blow by a guy. He's just got that extra burst. I think that is kind of the thing that jumps out to me.
"You can see just by looking at him walking around in a T-shirt that he's obviously put a lot of work in to get back."
More than any other player, Crosby is tied to sponsors, owners and his peers. He sells shoes. He sells merchandise. He sells tickets. He has lived with one of his owners, Mario Lemieux, while trying to be one of the guys in the dressing room.
He is in a unique position. It is both delicate and powerful, and he knows it.
He didn't have to do anything during negotiations. He already had signed his long-term deal, so the new rules wouldn't affect him personally. He could have done more, too. With so much star power and influence, he could have put more pressure on one side or the other.
But he straddled the line, letting other players take the lead for the union, but staying informed and involved with both sides – more out front than other stars of his stature have been in the past, more outspoken than he might have been in the past.
He stood next to NHLPA executive director Don Fehr during news conferences, allowing himself to be part of strategic photo ops. When he flew from Phoenix to New York for talks in early December, he traveled with his agent, Pat Brisson – and Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle.
"I wouldn't say it was easy," Crosby said. "But I think that it was something that I believed in, and I felt like I wanted what was good for everyone. I wasn't going to sit up there and say, 'You know what? I want to take everything from the owners and get as much as we can get.' I knew it was important for both sides to come out of the deal happy, but I knew there were certain things for us that were important, too. I was willing to support those things."
Crosby said he knew what his intentions were. Asked to be clear about what he meant, he said: "Just to be supportive, to be supportive of the players. I felt like during the whole process, the things that were important to us were very clear. It wasn't a take-it-or-leave-it mentality. It was very much, 'We're willing to negotiate, but that being said, we'd like you to understand that these are important to us.'
"I felt like we had understood where the league was coming from pretty early on with regards to [a] 50-50 [split of hockey-related revenue]. We knew that was very important to the league, and we were more than willing to go there because we knew it was important to the league. So when it came to [contracting rights], it felt like, you know, that's something that's specific to a player.
"There's no hiding the fact that guys are well taken care of financially, but when you're talking about a profession and what's important regarding the profession, the opportunity to possibly move from team to team or the difference of potential money on a salary cap, that's more jobs. Guys, this is their livelihood. They need a team to play on. So I think it's fair to push for that a little bit."
Team officials and players were not supposed to speak to each other during the lockout. But everyone on both sides knew Crosby's relationships with Lemieux and Burkle, and Crosby said nothing underhanded happened.
"It wasn't like we had some secret, that the NHL was saying they wanted something but Mario and Ron were telling me something that they really wanted," Crosby said. "I wasn't negotiating, or they weren't negotiating for the owners. Doing a one-on-one negotiation, it wasn't like that at all."
When Crosby and Burkle arrived together in New York in early December, they went to their separate sides. Crosby said he asked questions and raised concerns in internal meetings like any other player, but he wasn't overly vocal in internal meetings and was less vocal in owner-player meetings, deferring to players he felt were sharper with the CBA. He was discouraged when talks broke off and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman angrily pulled the owners' offer off the table.
"I was more discouraged just because I thought we had made a lot of ground," Crosby said. "I just didn't think it was necessarily the right time to kind of squash everything. … I think we all felt like things were progressing, and then to kind of have it all be capped off like that was … It just felt like it didn't really fit the feel of the last three days leading up to that."
Afterward, Crosby vented his frustration publicly, telling reporters he didn't understand why the sides weren't talking. He has always been available to the media – after every skate, practice and game during the season – but often has been bland and uncontroversial. Now that he's older, he has started to pick his spots on subjects like concussions, head shots and the lockout.
"There's people out there who will share their opinion whether someone likes it or not and whether people really want to hear it or not," Crosby said. "They just like sharing it. For me, I'm not that kind of person. … There's also things I may not know enough about to give my opinion. Sometimes someone may want my opinion, and I don't really want to give it because I don't have a great opinion about it.
"Over time, you get a better feel for things. … I think you come in young and there's a lot of pressure, and you get asked a lot of questions about what's your opinion on certain things, and I think you learn what you're comfortable with and what you feel strongly about. That's just kind of part of learning more and experience, I think. …
"I'm passionate about the game. I'm passionate about things around it. So when I feel like it's something I feel strongly about, there's no doubt I feel comfortable doing that."
Crosby has helped the NHL come back from a lockout before. He arrived in 2005-06, right after a lockout erased an entire season, and he was central to the marketing campaign as a new arena rose in Pittsburgh and revenues rose to record levels in the league.
He knows he could help again – along with so many other stars, from teammate Evgeni Malkin to new rival Claude Giroux to old rival Alex Ovechkin – and there is only one way to do it.
"I think there's a lot of guys kind of in that mix that can do that, but I'm not in that conversation if I'm not playing well," Crosby said. "So I feel like my game has to kind of take care of itself, and if that's what comes along with it, I'm comfortable kind of handling that. It's kind of been something I've dealt with for a few years."
Forever, actually.
"Yeah," Crosby said, smiling. "I think it's good. It's fine. Everything's okay there. But I like to worry about my game. Especially after all those things I've gone through, I would just love to focus on playing and kind of let the other stuff take care of itself."
What is Crosby worried about most? Rust?
"I am," he said, laughing. "I mean, I'm human. I'm like any other guy who misses a lot of time. You have to focus on things. You have that concern of making sure you start well and that you're up to speed and your game's there. I think that's normal. I think that's part of the challenge of playing, and you look forward and are excited for those challenges."
Ah, but rust is relative. Crosby has looked like Lemieux used to when he kept coming back from health problems and retirements.
When Crosby came back Nov. 21, 2011, he scored a highlight-reel goal on his first shot after missing almost 11 months. He had two goals and four points in the game. He put up 12 points in eight games before suffering a setback.
After he came back again March 15, 2012, he produced 25 points in 14 games down the stretch. He had three goals and eight points in six playoff games, and that was disappointing.
Crosby will tell you production is important, but he has never set specific goals and won't this season. He doesn't need to.
"I think you know your game," Crosby said. "We all play long enough to know when we're a factor in a game and we're doing our job. I know what that is. I'm just going to make sure to focus on that from that start. Just getting better. That's important. It's a short season, but I want to get better as the season goes on. So that'll be my goal."
Penguins Q&A: What is keeping the face of the NHL occupied during the lockout?
Shelly Anderson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 18, 2012
The NHL lockout has wiped out training camp and early games in the 2012-13 season, but readers can keep up with the Penguins with an occasional question-and- answer session. First up is center and team captain Sidney Crosby, the face of the NHL. Because of a concussion and neck injury dating to the Winter Classic Jan. 1, 2011, he has played in just 63 games, plus the six-game loss to the Flyers in the playoffs in April, over the past two seasons. He's healthy now and skating with some teammates fairly regularly at Southpointe.
• • • •
Q: What are you doing in your spare time during the lockout?
A: I've been watching the baseball playoffs. I don't really have a baseball team [I follow], but it's been exciting. And I've kept busy with my house [being built here]. It's getting closer, but it still keeps me busy, picking out all that stuff. It's a lot of stuff to think about. You don't realize it when you're going into it. I'm finding that out right now. That tells you how things are [with no season]—that's the joy of my day right there.
Q: Do you follow and keep up with the young stars coming up, guys like 2013 draft-class leaders Nathan MacKinnon from your hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, and Seth Jones, or 15-year-old Connor McDavid, who is playing in Erie?
A: I find it's a little bit harder to keep track here. In Canada, they're under a microscope a little more, especially from a young age. In Canada, they constantly show highlights from their games. But I try. I'm interested in seeing young guys coming up, especially Nathan from my hometown. It's easy to relate. It's very similar to what I went through.
Q: Did you see that Philadelphia's Claude Giroux, pictured had offseason surgery on both wrists and said it was from you slashing him in the faceoff circle during the playoffs?
A: Yeah. That was hilarious. I don't know. I didn't think I slashed him that hard. I just think he's looking for a reason to say something about me.
Q: Can you describe how good a shape you are in, and how would it compare with how you felt just before you got hurt, a stretch that included a 25-game point streak?
A: It's really hard to tell without playing, to tell where you're at. But I feel like practice-wise and off the ice, I'm where I need to be. The funny thing is, when I look back to last year, I felt like I was at that point [when I came back late in the season], but I really wasn't. Now, after a good summer working out, it feels a lot better. I'm not bigger. I've probably lost a few pounds because I've had five months to train. I started late May. I don't ever remember having five months. Leading up to when I got hurt, that was the best shape I'd been in, the best I've probably felt.
Q: Do you cook?
A: I do a little bit, yeah. I try to keep it simple. I cook a lot more in the summer when there's a lot more time. A lot of chicken and fish, stuff that's pretty easy. That's my go-to. I try to eat pretty healthy.
Q: What's your favorite meal?
A: Breakfast. I like a big brunch or breakfast. I like to make it, too. I like to make omelets and stuff like that. I'm a big breakfast guy. As for the kind of omelet, as much as you can put in there. Anything and everything. That's my favorite.
um can we talk about the fact that HOCKEY IS FUCKING BACK?!? A-FUCKING-MEN i cant even... 50 game season -_- but whatever im so fucking excited :D lets go devils <3
I FEEL EMPTY INSIDE AND ALL I WANNA DO IS GO TO PRUDENTIAL OR EVEN JUST WATCH MY BABIES ON TV OR EEEVVVEEENN FOLLOW THE SCORE WHILE I "DO MY HOMEWORK". I MISS MY MARTY AND MY DEBOER AND MY MOOSE AND MY PATRIK AND KOVY AND HENRIIIIQQUUUEE AND CLARKY O MY LORD MY HENRIQUE AND CLARKY I WANT THEM NOOOOOOWWWWW D':
The start of the NHL's regular season has been pushed back by the lockout. The league cancelled the first two weeks of the 2012-13 season, which was scheduled to begin Oct. 11 with four games (TSN).
