Hope for Pittsburgh

This weekend the Pittsburgh Penguins finally received some good news by winning the NHL draft lottery. In normal years having the first pick in the draft would be exciting enough, but this year's draft is no normal draft because there is one player who is head and shoulders above the rest of the players. His name is Sydney Crosby and he is the most anticipated junior player in well over a decade. In fact many have compared him to Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretsky.

Crosby, from Nova Scotia, was the first junior player to be the MVP of the Canadian Hockey League twice and had 120 goals and 183 assists in 121 games in the league. Crosby's 2.5 points a game average is just behind Lemieux's 2.8 points over three seasons as a Quebec junior in the 1980s. Gretzky had 70 goals and 112 assists for 182 points in 64 games as a 17-year-old player in his one junior season in 1977-78.

While I have seen many young players not reach their potential (Eric Lindross) this kid seems like the real deal. He has incredible vision and appears to see things on the ice before they happen. The word out of Pittsburgh is that he will play on the same line as Lemieux. With the legend and the prodigy playing together I expect the Penguins to have a explosive offense especially under the new rules designed to encourage more scoring.

I haven't been this excited about hockey since the early 90's and I am not the only one. The demand to watch Crosby play is significant as the Penguins have already sold season tickets to people from 10 different states. I know I am planning to visit Pittsburgh this fall to catch a game.

Mario Lemieux saved the Penguins when he was drafted in 1984 and led them to back to back titles. I suspect Sydney Crosby will be the second hero to save hockey in Pittsburgh. Who knows he might be good enough to save the sport in general.