Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) with the puck in the Buffalo Sabres zone during the third period at First Niagara Center. Penguins beat the Sabres 6-1.Kevin Hoffman
Go ahead and pick a favourite Sidney Crosby moment. There are plenty to choose from.
But ask the Pittsburgh Penguins captain's teammates about the most memorable, striking aspect of his play and the odds are they won't cite anything he's done in a game.
"We get to marvel at Sid during practice, watching him do different things … when people don't get to watch him," veteran winger Chris Kunitz said.
Youngster Bryan Rust, who has spent much of this season on Crosby's line, remarked on the attention his centre pays to preparation, and his unrelenting competitiveness.
"Even in a shooting drill in practice, he's battling out rebounds, he's trying to get the puck in the net as much as he can. … He has that drive, he does that hard work, and he stays on the ice after practice to do those little things like batting [pucks] out of the air, things you wouldn't necessarily work on," said Rust, a 24-year-old in third season.
Crosby is a famous hockey obsessive, which leads to innumerable practice and dressing-room conversations.
That means he's constantly deconstructing, talking about nuances and identifying areas where the team can improve.
As Kunitz observed, "he obviously thinks the game faster than most people."
Crosby has a long list of hockey attributes. His mind is among the most important.
Whereas most of his Canada teammates from the most recent World Cup are slogging through disappointing seasons, Crosby seems to be getting better.
Crosby was asked on Wednesday whether this may be the best stretch of his career and if so, what has prompted it.
"So many factors go into it, the fact we've played a lot of hockey the last year and a half, I think that helps. Playing deep into the playoffs, World Cup, you play big games like that, it's the kind of intensity that you get used to. I think that helps you as a player," he said. "But it's so hard to say, it's such a fine line between pucks going in, not going in, winning games, losing games. I feel good, you just want to continue to be consistent."
Well, he certainly is that.
The Nova Scotian accumulates signature moments in the way lesser players rack up their per diem, and if his current point-a-game pace holds, he will cross the 1,000-point barrier after eight more games – on Feb. 9 at home against the Calgary Flames.
Even if a drought were to ensue, it seems likely that only 11 players in NHL history will have accomplished the feat in fewer games (he made his 745th career NHL appearance at Bell Centre against the Canadiens on Wednesday).
It's a doubly remarkable achievement in the modern dead-puck era.
Only one other player whose career began in the 21st century has scored 1,000 points – that would be Alex Ovechkin, who will have needed nearly 140 more games to do it.
Had Crosby had better luck with his health, he'd have left the mark in the rear-view a couple of years ago.
He's contending for the NHL points lead this season and he's also scoring at a league-leading 56-goal pace, which would be a career high.
For a player of his obvious and immense talent, a curious conventional wisdom has coalesced around Crosby: he's not the easiest guy to play with.
It's not a slight, more of a recognition he's far enough ahead of his peers that they have trouble keeping up.
Thus, the revolving door on his wings over the past decade.
"I've heard that a couple of times … you come up and you see him, and you're star-struck a little bit, you always want to get him the puck," said 24-year-old Conor Sheary, a diminutive University of Massachusetts product who has played more minutes with Crosby than any other Penguin forward this year. "He's so advanced, he sees a lot of stuff you might not see. … But he's such a good player, he creates offence in so many different ways that it's fun to just be a part of."
If anyone is having fun in the NHL at the moment, it is Crosby.