Music: {allcanada} Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby keeps raising game

PITTSBURGH — "Sid the Kid" plays about 23 shifts a game and averages 58 seconds a shift. That means he's on the bench, catching his breath, for 64% of every game.

But the truth is there is never any escape from being Sidney Crosby.

Standing center stage in Saturday's Winter Classic against the Washington Capitals or playing a prominent role in HBO's 24/7 reality series is business as usual for the Pittsburgh Penguins megastar, who probably spends more time promoting hockey than playing it.

"If you look at the last three or four years, there has been a lot happening with the Stanley Cup and the Olympics," Crosby, 23, says, laughing. "There is always something new every season."

It's more like eight years that Crosby has lived in the fishbowl.

When he was 16, he had rock star-like popularity while playing junior hockey in Quebec. When he was an NHL rookie, a Toronto newspaper moved a reporter to Pittsburgh to follow his exploits. He was named the Penguins' captain and won a scoring title at 19, and he won a Stanley Cup at 21. At 22, facing as much pressure as any athlete at the Vancouver Olympics, he delivered the gold medal-winning goal in his home country.

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He delivers some season tickets in the summer. He hits home runs during batting practice at PNC Park. He makes every appearance his team asks him to make. If he had time, he might leap over small buildings in a single bound.

"The key for Sidney is that he doesn't fight it," says Tom McMillan, the Penguins' vice president for communications. "He just accepts that this is just part of his daily routine."

And while HBO cameras have been rolling, Crosby just happens to be playing the best hockey of his career.

Crosby netted at least one point in 25 consecutive games before the New York Islanders ended his run on Wednesday night. It was the longest streak since Mats Sundin recorded a point in 30 in a row in 1992-93.

The Winter Classic was designed for a Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin subplot, and Ovechkin could end up being the star of the game. But this season, Crosby vs. Ovechkin has been a one-sided race; Crosby leads by 23 points. Earlier in the season, there was talk of whether the Tampa Bay Lightning's Steven Stamkos would push Crosby. But Crosby is 13 points ahead of No. 2 Stamkos.

"Anytime he is challenged, he raises his game," Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero says.

Crosby is on a pace to net 135 points, which would be the highest total since Penguins owner Mario Lemieux accumulated 161 as a player in 1995-96.

"What impresses me is how hard Sid works to get better every season," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma says. "He's always working on some aspect of his game."

Heading into the 2009-10 season, Crosby indicated he wanted to become a more dangerous goal-scorer because defenders were overplaying him to pass. His goal production went from 36 to 51, allowing him to tie Stamkos for the league lead. This fall, Crosby said he wanted to become more unpredictable, meaning he wanted to strike a balance between shooting and passing to make it impossible for defenses to know what he'd do. He has 32 goals and 33 assists in 39 games.

"Mostly I'm just attacking and going to the net," Crosby says. "It's just about competing hard."

To those who watch him regularly, it seems more complicated than that.

"He's scoring goals in different ways," Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman says. "He's always been a goal-scorer, but he's added a wrist shot coming down the wing, a one-time on the power play. He's just continually adding to it."

Crosby's work ethic has become a source of humor for his teammates. "We give him grief, saying, 'Geez, we only have one net to use because he hogs the other net,' " Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik says. "He shoots like 50 pucks working with (assistant coach Tony) Granato every single day."

Teammates aren't bashful about razzing their captain. "Around the net, the puck seems to find him," Orpik says. "He goes into traffic, but around the net it always seems to pop out for him. We always joke that he always gets all the bounces. It's always like that in practice, too."

Obviously, Crosby has needed more than bounces to produce the 26 goals and 24 assists during his point streak.

"He's had stretches before when offensively he's been this good," Orpik says. "But when we put him out for a big faceoff at the end of the game, he's winning all of those."

Crosby wins 55.8% of his faceoffs. "He's a great example for all young players," Yzerman says. "Here we have one of the best players in our game, a young guy just driven to get better in all areas. It's so important because he can play in all situations and score the goal, set up the goal, he can win the faceoff, he'll block a shot. How valuable is that?"

It has helped Crosby that linemate Chris Kunitz is having a strong season and that the Penguins defense's puck-moving ability has been boosted by the offseason acquisitions of Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin plus the improvement of Kris Letang.

"What makes Sid a great player is that he uses all four players on the ice," Shero says. "We are getting a lot of offense from our defensemen. ... We are real quick on the transition, and we aren't spending too much time in the defensive zone."

Penguins broadcaster Paul Steigerwald noted Crosby had five deflection goals on shots from the point this season.

"Our defense is much improved in getting pucks to the net," he says. "Sid is aware of that, and he's going to areas where he can get deflections."

Quick release

Shero says Crosby's release also is helping the goal totals. Early Crosby goals were coming from 5 to 7 feet. Now he's dangerous from 20 to 25 feet.

"He can zing it now," Shero says. "I'm not saying (he's like) Ovechkin and Stamkos shooting it. But really quick hands. The shot is real quick."

Certainly, fans who watched the Olympic gold medal game will recall how quickly he fired the puck for the game-winner against U.S. goalie Ryan Miller.

"I'm just capitalizing on the chances I'm getting, and the team is playing well," Crosby says of his streak. "But I honestly don't feel like I'm playing differently."

Crosby wasn't sure his release was quicker but says he works on it regularly.

"I just try to make sure I get it off as quick as possible to catch goalies off guard," he says.

It's a simple strategy. But it fits into Crosby's approach to every aspect of his life. He isn't overwhelmed by stardom.

"He comes into the room, takes off his equipment, takes off his skates and does the media," McMillan says. "Sid is done 10 minutes after the game. And there are always guys who will do 9,000 other things to avoid the media. ... They end up using all of the extra energy avoiding the media, and they do it anyway. The way Sid does the media is the way he does everything. It's efficient, and it's planned."

McMillan says Crosby received so many interview requests he couldn't possibly do them all. "But he understands what's important, and he's very respectful of people," McMillan says. "When visiting broadcasters want to talk to him, he understands why that is important."

Just one of the guys

The HBO series makes it clear that Crosby wants to be, and is, treated like one of the guys. In one segment, on the team plane, teammate Maxime Talbot zings Crosby about being an inferior video game player. Is Crosby really the worst on the team?

"No way," Crosby insists, laughing. "The guys know how much it gets me when they say that. I'm not that bad. I have been playing for five years, so I shouldn't be that bad."

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury sets the record straight.

"Max is pretty good, but we don't tell him because he gets too cocky," Fleury says. "Sid is all right ... but he is not Crosby-esque like he is on the ice."

Of course, if Crosby starts to really work on it, no one would doubt he could become the best.

COMPARING THE STARS

Crosby

Ovechkin


23	Age	25

5-11	Height	6-2

187	Weight	233

1st overall	Drafted	1st overall

2005	Year	2004

2005-06	First season	2005-06

410	Career games	435

215	Career goals	283

356	Career assists	288

571	Career points	571

1	MVP trophies	2

1	Scoring titles	1

1	Goal titles	2

1	Stanley Cups	0

39	2010-11 games	39

32	2010-11 goals	14

33	2010-11 assists	28

65	2010-11 points	42

27	Head-to-head NHL games	27

16-10-1	Head-to-head record	11-12-4

21	Head-to-head goals	23

27	Head-to-head assists	19

48	Head-to-head points	42