TORONTO – The Pittsburgh Penguins made it to the knockout stages for the 16th straight season – the longest run of any team in the big five professional team sports in North America – largely because of Sidney Crosby, their enduring star center, quietly having one of the best seasons in the NHL at the age of 34.
Only seven current NHL players have stayed longer than Crosby, and another six entered the league with him in 2005. Except for Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals forward, who is chasing a scoring record. In Wayne Gretzky’s career, no player his age or with 17 seasons under his skates has been so dominant.
Elite athletes like brave cat (44), Tiger Woods (forty six), Serena Williams (40) and Rafael Nadal (35) have worked to stay on top of their sports, with varying degrees of success. Crosby, who has won three Stanley Cups and countless individual accolades in a physically brutal game of getting faster and younger by year, has been in the spotlight.
No one watched Crosby more closely than Andy O’Brien. A strength and conditioning coach, O’Brien met Crosby at a summer hockey school when the player was 13 years old. This summer will be their 22nd time working together at Crosby’s off-season home near Halifax, Nova Scotia.
But Crosby isn’t in a hurry towards summer. The Penguins opened their first-round playoff series against the Rangers on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s unbelievable that he’s still one of the league’s top players at his age,” said O’Brien, who is based in Toronto and is also a Florida Panthers high-performance consultant. .
“I didn’t look at that when he was at his peak and now we’re just trying to slow that decline,” said O’Brien. “He has the ability to create a better season than any he has ever had. He is constantly evolving as an athlete, ready to adapt and find new ways to be effective. And the best measure we have is what he’s doing on the ice. ”
What Crosby has done in 69 games this year is score 31 goals (9 of which are winners) and give 53 assists, and he persists in following a sport exactly one. amount on the body. His 84 points earned him the lead in the team with Jake Guentzel on the left wing, who was seven years younger than Crosby and played seven more games.
Crosby missed the start of the season because of wrist surgery and Covid-19, but has been playing superbly since. His five hundred colleagues selected him last week as the team of the tournament The most complete player. And he still make it look easy.
“You have to take care of your body a little more,” says Crosby. “It’s been years of wear and tear and above all, you have to find a way to tweak your game. There are many small things you can do. But taking care of your body is the greatest. ”
Crosby, chosen by the First Penguin in 2005 and piled up with expectations to lead the NHL out of the lockdown season, played 1,000th career game in February 2021 and scored 500th target one year later. Stanley Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017, and numerous Hart, Conn Smythe, Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies, two Olympic Gold Medalover 100 points over six seasons and the most playoff points of any active player, making up his career. Hitherto.
“He never got to the point where he said, ‘Okay, that’s good enough, I just need to stay there,’” O’Brien said. “He’s constantly pushing himself.”
Crosby still dashed into corners, fighting alongside the board and scoring nifty goals – on secession and tic-tac-toe, from the back door and behind the net, on one knee and at his back and from a goalkeeper’s head. The all-around skating and mastery of the game can immediately give way to opposing players. He is a strongman and an escape artist who can stay ahead of thunder, turn from one direction to another, dash into an open space and find nets, which he has done 586 times, including in the knockout round, entering Tuesday.
It’s remarkable considering his injury history: a high ankle sprain from a table hit in 2008; horror shock that caused him to miss most of the 2011 and 2012 seasons; broke his jaw in 2013; another concussion in reality in 2016; core surgery in 2019; left wrist injury from 2014 requiring surgery twice in the past two years.
‘His athletic prowess is as good as it ever was.’
Crosby, says O’Brien, has two special gifts, the first being the ability to endure unusually high workloads.
“He could do these crazy long workouts at high intensity, then get on ice and do the same things,” says O’Brien. “And then feel ready to go the next day. I’ve had other clients of mine that have tried to stick with him, and they just haven’t been able to recover in the way that’s normal for him. ”
O’Brien said Crosby has a “highly parasympathetic nervous system” – allowing his heart rate to be low and his body to stay in a state of recovery longer. “He’s very good at rest, so when he’s not training, his nervous system is in a really calm state.”
Crosby, who has prioritized strength throughout his career, turns 35 in August. “His overall fitness – speed, agility, balance – is as good as ever.” O’Brien said.
O’Brien says Crosby has an unusual ability to be physically active at maximum while skating, punching, absorbing and delivering hits, and that his low heart rate has kept him aware. .
“Many athletes who think the game is at a high level and are really good at handling it tend to be slower athletes,” says O’Brien. “He has the best of both worlds.”
‘You’re always looking for inspiration.’
Crosby is a huge fan of other sports, like football, golf and especially tennis – play and watch – and he studies how old superstars can endure.
“You look at Nadal, he’s just a horse and very determined with his work ethic,” Crosby said. “He always looked like he was working hard. Then a guy like Federer, nothing looks clumsy. He’s very gracious and doesn’t seem like he’s working quite as hard though. Both were successful. You are always looking for inspiration. ”
O’Brien said tennis and ice hockey are very similar. (Search Roger Federer on ice skates.)
Footwork – plunging, planting, overtaking, twisting and swinging repeatedly through the trunk – can help develop motor skills for hockey. “The upper body is constantly doing something different from the lower body of both of them,” says O’Brien.
From 2015 to 2020, O’Brien worked with Penguins as their director of sports and performance science. Seeing Crosby throughout the season allows for a nuanced adjustment to Crosby’s workload, recovery, nutrition, sleep, and stress response, “his whole physiology,” O’Brien said. .
Then there’s the hockey game. Crosby said he has learned to play under the ball more, and with more patience, training his inherent need for forward motion until the right moment. “If you’re not below discomfort, especially on the defensive side, it could be a long night,” he said. “When you rely on your speed, you always feel like you have a chance. Finding that balance takes time to learn.”
‘You just appreciate the years.’
Crosby’s parents, Trina and Troy, were in Pittsburgh for his 500th goal. Their son’s career and what happened with it. In recent years, both of Crosby’s grandmothers have passed away, as well as His yellow Labrador, Sam15 years old.
“You just appreciate the years,” says Trina. “There have been all these hockey games and all these special times, and life is going in between. That’s too much of what I’ve seen as the years go by. He’s been badly injured, and he has to get up every day and do something he absolutely loves. “
Crosby has three years left on the $104.4 million contract he signed when he was just 24 years old. For superstitious reasons, it is always done for one salary cap reaches $8.7 million every season. (He wears the number 87 for his birthday, August 7, 1987.)
“I just try to look back at it once a year,” he said. “I keep trying to learn things throughout the year, but then you try to figure out where you’re better and use the summer to do that. I feel really good, I want to really emphasize this. But yeah, you know.
“I mean, I’m a lot closer to the bottom than the middle. I understand that, but you try to keep the same mindset that you have so far.”
