1) While we were away one of the more important occurrences was the 21st birthday of the NHL's boy(now man) wonder, Sid (no longer the kid?) Crosby. As this picture seems to indicate he wasted no time getting wasted and finding two skanky co-eds. ; ) While we wish he swung our way, there is still time for him to change his ways. And what's best about his recent birthday is he is now legal age...no more jail bait!
2) Just kidding of course, Sidney is a tea-totaller, right? The drinking age in Canada we believe is 19 so its mute. However, the real reason for us posting this is to make a statement of how much he has done at such a very young age.
3) Crosby at 21 has already played 3 full NHL seasons.(albeit the last one was hampered by injury) A rarity in today's NHL to see a teenager excel to this degree. He has already accomplished so much that it's easy to forget how young he still really is. Many players from his draft class (2005) have yet to make any impact or play much at all in the league. To compare with his age peers from that year: First the top 2-10th draft picks, then the best of the rest
- Bobby Ryan-drafted 2nd. 5 goals/10 points for Anaheim
- Jack Johnson-drafted 3rd. 79 NHL games played/11 points for LA (defensemen)
- Benoit Pouliot-drafted 4th. 14 games/3 points for Wild
- Carey Price -drafted 5th (Goalie) 41 NHL games, 24 wins for Habs
- Gilbert Brule- drafted 6th. 12 goals/32 points for Columbus
- Jack Skille- drafted 7th. 16 NHL games 5 points for Chicago
- Devin Setoguchi- drafted 8th. 11 goals/17 points for the Shark
- Brian Lee- drafted 9th (Defense) 6 NHL games 1 point for Ottawa
- Luc Bourdon- drafted 10th (Defense) 36 NHL games, 2 points for Vancouver
- Anze Kopitar- drafted 11th 52 goals/138 points for LA
- Paul Stastny- drafted 44th. 52 goals/149 points for Colorado
4) By contrast Crosby has 99 goals and 294 points in 213 games, nearly double the nearest peer from his draft class. In addition to be far and away the best player in his class how does he fair compared to Hall of Fame players Here's a list of players who averaged more than a point per game in more than 78 games before they turned 21. Keep in mind that in the early/mid 80's the average number of goals/game was significantly more than today. So its no coincidence that all but Crosby on the list below played a good number of games during that run and gun era.
- Wayne Gretzky, Oilers 301 points. Not a surprise here. TGO is ahead of almost everyone in all offensive categories
- Sidney Crosby, Penguins 294 points. Not bad to be 2nd behind Gretzky in any category!
- Jimmy Carson, Kings/Oilers 286 points.(Carson never scored over 100 points AFTER 21!)
- Ron Francis, Whalers 241 points. One of our all time fav players.
- Mario Lemieux, Penguins 241 points. Figured he'd of been higher, but the team around him initially wasn't too strong
- Steve Yzerman, Red Wings 218 points. Stevie Y was a dangerous threat especially at the start of his career
5) His accomplishments thus far:
- He scored 102 points his rookie season, breaking Mario Lemieux's team rookie scoring record and becoming the youngest player in NHL history to reach the 100-point mark. If not for another phenom, then 20 year old Alex Ovechkin, he would have been a shoe-in for Calder.
- In his next season, at the age of 19, he won the Ross by leading the NHL in scoring, won the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP
- Was the youngest player to ever be named captain of a team and a starter in the All-Star Game.
- Along with the other youngsters (Malkin/Fleury) helped propel his team to winning the Eastern conference in last season's playoffs, pushing the Wings to 6 games before succumbing to the Detroit juggernaut
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