The Kid’s quiet confidence

PITTSBURGH – Bob Errey has suited up with some great players and stood alongside some great leaders in his day.

Errey, a television analyst now after 15 seasons in the NHL, played early in his career with Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens, Paul Coffey, Ron Francis, Joe Mullen, Bryan Trottier and a captain by the name of Mario Lemieux.

An alternate captain with plenty of leadership know-how himself, Errey enjoyed two Stanley Cup campaigns during his 10 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Later he’d rub elbows with respected leaders in Buffalo (Pat LaFontaine), San Jose (Igor Larionov), Dallas (Mike Modano), New York (Wayne Gretzky, Brian Leetch) and Detroit, where he was reunited with Peterborough junior teammate Steve Yzerman.

Errey knows talent and he can recognize leadership. So when he saw Sidney Crosby, who was still more than two months shy of legal drinking age in the United States, lift his misdirected team up on his shoulders and score the first two goals of a 3-2 win in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against Detroit on Wednesday night, he knew he was again witnessing something special.

“He’s going to write his own ticket,” Errey said Thursday.

For now, Crosby wrote another chapter in what long ago stopped being a hopeful tale spun by a league needing a young, fresh face to help it emerge from the embarrassment of missing an entire season over a labor dispute.

No hype here, no false credentials. Sid the Kid took another step toward being the face of the NHL. For so long it’s been Gretzky and Lemieux, and justifiably so. Both were great record-setters in the sport, and remain iconic ambassadors for hockey today. And they still are the most recognizable figures in the game. But Crosby, the leader of a new generation, is hot on their heels.

“When I watch Crosby, he looks to me like a guy with a lot of will,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said Thursday. “If your best player has a ton of will, your best players have a ton of will, I think you have a chance to get everybody to improve.”

Crosby knew he had to do that for himself and his teammates. This was going to be a short and disappointing series for Pittsburgh if the Penguins didn’t rally after getting shut out twice at the outset in Detroit.

Teammates described Crosby as quiet and focused during the morning skate Wednesday and before game-time in the evening.

“What impressed me the most about Sid, you look at him, it’s obviously every morning he’s going to bring skills,” Pittsburgh forward Max Talbot said. “He’s probably one of the most talented guys in the league. But when you come to practice or just optional skate and you look at him, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, that guy, he’s working and the respect for the game, the love for the game and the passion.’

“And what he did last night was just a great example. You have no choice but to follow. I think that’s the reason why we came out like that,” he added.

Minutes before scoring Pittsburgh’s first goal of the series late in the opening period, Crosby was joined by Evgeni Malkin on a mid-period line adjustment by coach Michel Therrien. The message was clear: Help turn the tide of a period when Detroit was dominating in shots (9-1) and possession. If something didn’t change fast, the Red Wings were going to score and possibly seize control of Pittsburgh’s must-have Game 3.

Crosby, Malkin and Marian Hossa controlled the crucial shift, set the tone for the momentum change and soon thereafter cashed in when Crosby scored his fifth of the postseason. He added his second of the night on a power play early in the second period, and Pittsburgh’s confidence was back as quickly as Detroit’s invincibility vanished.

“It was desperation,” Crosby said. “I wanted to make sure personally I had a good game.”

The third-year star admitted he was aware of needing to lead, but lead in the proper manner.

“You want to be quiet, but you have to have a sense of confidence in the room, too,” he said. “I think we all believed that if we put our best game out there, we gave ourselves a good chance. But personally, you just want to make sure you’re leading by example and doing your job out there. And that’s all I was basically trying to do.”

In the end, Crosby was all over the score sheet. Aside from his two goals, he had three shots, three others that missed the net, a hit, a takeaway, and eight faceoff wins out of 15 chances on a night Pittsburgh topped Detroit by one in a category the Red Wings owned the first two games. His 19:41 of ice time was four seconds less than a forward-leading total of 19:45 by Hossa.

“He’s a pretty quiet guy, generally,” teammate Adam Hall said of Crosby. “He’s not a cheerleader on the bench or in the locker room really. He doesn’t say much. He just goes out there, and I think we’ve all said it before. It’s great to see one of your captains be one of your hardest workers out there.”

Crosby & Co. know they’ve only started to climb the mountain. Over and over Thursday, Therrien described Wednesday’s game as a challenge. He said Saturday night will be the same.

A loss at home for the first time this postseason would put the Penguins back in a desperate situation, with no margin for error and a 1-3 deficit heading back to Detroit.

No one needs to remind Crosby, too, that the Pens are trying to become only the second team in 33 tries to lose the first two games on foreign ice and come back to win the Cup. He is keeping it all in perspective.

“There’s a lot of skill on both sides, and you have to expect some nice plays and some good opportunities,” Crosby said. “We tried to play well defensively, but they’re going to get their chances, too. … Hopefully we can still tie it up.”

That answer comes Saturday night, when another chapter of Crosby’s tale waits to unfold.