The Captain's C

A Significant Symbol

At first blush, the news that the Pittsburgh Penguins had just named Sidney Crosby the youngest captain in the NHL history just didn't seem all that earth-shattering. Hockey history aside, Sidney Crosby being the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins is roughly akin to the colors of the Penguins being black and gold.

Cynics will claim that the Penguins made Crosby captain at this particular juncture to ensure that he would get another NHL record as well as capitalize on the public relations bonanza of Crosby becoming captain during the Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins' organization is guilty as charged on both counts. But, really, who cares?

Honestly, the reason I equated Crosby being captain of the Pens with equally earth-shattering facts such as Mario Lemieux owns the Pens, the Pens wear black-and-gold, and the Pens play their home games at Mellon Arena, is because Crosby has already been the Pens' de-facto captain for at least a season.

For the cynics/worrywarts who fret about Pittsburgh marketing Crosby's captaincy and/or wonder if a kid who still can't drink legally is up to the job, let's look at some primary responsibilities of a captain and see if "Sid the Kid" can actually be a good "Captain Crosby."


Responsibility: In this day and age, a captain represents his team to the media. A captain, in many ways, is a team's spokesperson to the press. A captain answers the bell on behalf of his team.

Captain Crosby: Sid the Kid has been answering the media's beck-and-call since he was a teenager. While fans around the league joke about Sidney's "boring" and never incendiary interviews, the fact of the matter is that Crosby can easily deal with being the public face of his team. Submitting to more questions and extra interviews? Like that's going to be anything new for Crosby?


Responsibility: A captain is to lead his team by helping to ensure his team is prepared to play at a high level.

Captain Crosby: After the YoungStars game this winter, Crosby made arrangements to see that he and his three YoungStars teammates got ice time prior to the Pittsburgh-Dallas game. While Crosby ensured his teammates got the ice time, he also commended his teammates for their willingness to go out and get in a good on-ice workout. The rhetorical question: Do you think a kid who can inspire and rouse his teammates to an extra practice session in the midst of a break in the season can handle helping to ensure his team is ready to play at a high level?


Responsibility: A captain is to lead his team by example.

Captain Crosby: Sid the Kid played the last three weeks of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs on a broken foot. His teammates knew he wanted to win badly enough to play through pain. Beyond the hockey cliche of playing through pain, however, come the other hockey cliches of effort and hard work. Say what you will for Crosby, but when the best player in the league is also the player who works the hardest, his less-skilled teammates have no choice but to follow the lead of their best player and hardest worker.


Responsibility: A captain needs to be able to talk to officials and demonstrate composure both on and off the ice.

Captain Crosby: Sid the Kid displayed leaps and bounds of growth from his rookie season to his second season when it came to being demonstrative toward officials. If one were to have a legitimate concern about Captain Crosby, it might be that his off-the-charts off-ice maturity is not always equal to his passionate, in-game composure. And yet I still feel that much of the criticism directed at Crosby has been blown up--by Don Cherry's comments and by the comments of coaches (who apparently don't know Crosby well enough) trying to help their team win games--into unrealistic heights. Sure, Crosby gets upset and frustrated from time to time. So did Mario Lemieux; so have other great players. It's a matter of what Crosby does when he's frustrated that matters--and usually, just like Lemieux, when Crosby gets mad, he gets even, and more than even. Crosby's frustration turns into passion that leads to winning, more often than not. An occasional outburst (by the way, hardly uncommon for veteran players and leaders who are renowned as terrific captains) aside, channeling frustration and anger into passionate play are a sign of on-ice maturity--and what any team should desire of its' captain.


In all honesty, Sidney Crosby has been the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, at least in spirit, since Mario Lemieux's retirement. And last season, when it was revealed that the Penguins twice offered the captaincy to Crosby, the team truly did become his.

Yet the "C" that Crosby chose to accept after talking to veterans and after the season (still more signs of maturity for the naysayers) is not some insignificant letter. The captain's C is symbolically significant, and more than just a symbol, it's a significant symbol.

After the Pens' playoff loss to Ottawa, a photographer captured the Pens' trio of underage centers sitting, still in partial gear, with dejected expression on their faces. The dejection and sadness on the faces of Crosby, Malkin, and Staal, is obvious, and yet somehow, it's poignant, too.

When the Penguins offered the captaincy to Crosby, the organization was effectually saying: This is your team now. And for Crosby, yes, of course, it's his team. Of course he will be the one, if and when the Penguins lose again in the postseason, to face the media music and answer questions about another postseason loss. Of course he who is the franchise will be the face of the franchise.

Yet that captain's C, significant as it is for Crosby, is another way of passing to the torch to the young core of Penguins players. Crosby will lead the young players, of course, but the team now belongs to them. Success or failure, triumph and exaltation versus dejection and depression, the team is now Crosby's, and by extension, now theirs.

Yes, veteran players will remain on the team, and the team will not wholly be comprised of youth. Veteran players should and probably will sport A's as alternate captains next season, and the younger players, including their captain, will still listen and learn from their more experienced teammates.

But make no mistake. When the Pittsburgh organization offered Crosby the captaincy of the Penguins, the organization knew full well what it was doing. When Crosby accepted the captaincy, he knew full well the set of obligations and responsibilities he was assuming.

And now those obligations and responsibilities--both days where the duties may be burdensome and days when they may be joyful--fall upon Captain Crosby. As the youngest captain in NHL history is now the official centerpiece of the Pittsburgh Penguins, let it ring out, loud and clear, that Crosby's acceptance of the Pittsburgh captaincy necessarily entails that the youthful core of the Pittsburgh Penguins is no longer just brimming with future "promising potential" but is the expected core, sooner rather than later, of a bonafide Cup contender.

And no, those aren't just expectations from rabid, faithful Pens' fans. Those are the expectations of the organization, from ownership to the general manager's office, and of the captain himself. And, as goes the captain, so, too goes the team.

It's been an exhilarating two years thus far, and I plan to continue to enjoy the ride that is the Sidney Crosby show as the league's youngest but perfectly prepared captain sets out to bring the Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.