Sidney Crosby Transcript

Kid Crosby photo by Matthieu Masquelet

When the playoffs started, I didn’t feel the Pittsburgh Penguins were a Stanley Cup championship team. They were thrown together too late in the season. They had a rookie head coach. And they still lacked that premier sniper on the wing.

At the same time, though, I reckoned they could beat anyone simply because Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury could win games on their own. All three have taken turns carrying the team this postseason. Fleury flummoxed the Flyers. Crosby KO’d the Caps. Malkin mauled the Hurricanes. Now, one win away from the Stanley Cup, the Penguins need the Big Three more than ever.

The Stanley Cup Finals have been more a team effort. Crosby and Malkin have been stifled, and Fleury has been inconsistent at best. But I say they all show up in Game Seven. Fleury stands tall. Malkin hounds the puck all night. And in the end, Kid Crosby will deliver the winning goal. It’s who he is. It’s what he does.

And that’s it. That’s all the analysis I’m giving. The Penguins will win Game Seven.

Here’s Crosby’s Thursday chat with the media…

Q. At this point in the competition, the two teams are pretty much, there's no secret that the two teams, what do you do to try to get an edge tomorrow?

SIDNEY CROSBY: I think you just focus on getting to your game, and being consistent. You know, the starts obviously, you want to start right. I think it's whatever team can get to their game and not let any distractions get in the way, just execute their game plan the best.

Q. What does the Stanley Cup trophy itself mean to you when you see it? What does it make you think of? And also, were you ever photographed with it when you were a kid? Anything you remember like that?

SIDNEY CROSBY: Never photographed with it. Had a couple of chances to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Joey DiPenta actually had a Stanley Cup party in my hometown, so I didn't make it to the party, and I didn't get a photograph with it.

Everyone knows that you try to stay away from it until you get the opportunity to really do it yourself. When I think about it, I think there's a lot of things that come to mind. But more or less, I probably remember the most is just previous captains who have lifted it. I remember I was really young seeing Montreal. '93 is a memory that comes to mind. But as far as specifically the Cup itself, I remember more guys with it than it by itself.

Q. Ruslan Fedotenko scored a pair of goals to give his team the Cup in a Game 7 that nobody really expected he would do because of the talent they had. Is there any talk in your dressing room about a hero, an unexpected hero emerging tomorrow? Someone different stepping up?

SIDNEY CROSBY: There's not really talk, but I think that's what you see in these situations a lot. You know, somebody finds a way to elevate their game no matter who it is. But we see that happen a lot, so we haven't really talked about it, but we're hoping Feds has a lot of confidence after that game and can do the same thing.

Q. Do you allow yourself to imagine what it might be like at the end of tomorrow night that Commissioner Bettman will hand you the Stanley Cup? Or do you try to push those thoughts aside? How do you deal with that?

SIDNEY CROSBY: I think you try to push them aside. For me personally, that's the way I look at it. You know, you want to approach it as much as you can like a normal game. And it's probably a lot easier said than done. But it's so important to focus on what you have to do out there. Whether I look at the last game we're facing elimination, you don't think, what if they win here. You can't think like that.

We focused on what we had to do, and, you know, I think personally I'll try to bring that same mentality. Just make sure everything's right as far as preparing, and when I'm out there, focus on what I have to do out there on the ice and believe that I'll get a good result from that and get the result like you said.

Q. Can you talk about what message is coming to the team when Petr Sykora joined the team for offensive, and he got hurt on the [defensive] play?

SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, it's a big statement, obviously. Petr hasn't played as much in this playoff. But he comes back in and makes a huge block like that. That shows that he's willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to help us win. You know, that's what you need, especially this time of the year. So that was a big statement from him. I think all the guys from the bench realize that, and that's something that we need from everybody. But it was huge to see that.

Q. Does it bother you at all that you only have one goal in this series? Your teammates have stressed that you've done so much more, but does that bother you at all?

SIDNEY CROSBY: You know, I think I'd always like to score more. I look back and some of the chances I've had just didn't really get a whole lot of luck. To be honest now's not the time to think about what could have been goals. The only way I'm looking at here is it's a great opportunity, and I've got to try to go out there and play my best game in the playoffs. No matter what's happened before, whether I had one goal or ten, doesn't really matter at this point. So, no, I haven't really thought about it a lot. But when I do look back, you know, just some bad bounces.

Q. At this point everybody's tired and banged up, but is there any kind of noticeable boost of energy, whether it's mental or physical, knowing that there's one more game and you can empty the tank tomorrow night and just go from there?

SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, I'd say that just comes from your desperation level, and when that happens you seem to get a little more adrenaline, I think. That's pretty typical for everyone. I think, yeah, when you realize it's the last one, everyone makes sure that they leave it all out there. I think that's typical for this type of situation.

Q. We're sitting here just over 24 hours from when you'll play that game. Do you have any big motivational speech or anything brewing in you anything you're going to say to the team before that?

SIDNEY CROSBY: No, I don't think we need it at this point (smiling). We've been through so much as a team, especially this year. But, you know, even guys who have been on the team for a while now, even longer than me, there's been a lot of things everyone's gone through both as a group and individually to get to this point. We've all dreamed of having this opportunity, so I don't think there's much that needs to be said.

But I really think there's a strong belief in all the guys in there that if we all do our best and bring the right things that we're supposed to bring, we have a great opportunity to do something.

Q. Can a team's lack of success in a certain building, you guys have struggled here all Finals, mess with your heads a little bit?

SIDNEY CROSBY: I don't think so. Not when you're looking at a game this big. I don't think you -- I don't think you try to worry about the past too much, whether, you know, we won five in a row, four here, whatever the case was. I don't think that's on our mind at all. It's one game, and we've got to find a way to have our best one.

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