You better watch outYou better not cry
You better not pout, I'm tellin you why
Sidney Crosby is coming to town!
After a long wait, the Pittsburgh Penguins make their first visit to the Xcel Energy Center tonight since drafting star center Sidney Crosby. I know not everybody reading this blog is from Minnesota, so I'll let you in on a secret...Crosby coming to town this week has been a pretty big deal around St. Paul the past couple days!! Several articles appeared in today's papers praising the Pens superstar, and the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Wild should be filled to capacity as the Penguins battle the Wild tonight.
Being an avid Minnesota Wild and Crosby fanatic, this is the best of both worlds for me. I get to watch a hockey game tonight that will feature my favorite team, and favorite player in the NHL. I've cheered on the Wild since their inception, and enjoy watching them compete on the ice, whether they win or lose. As for Sidney Crosby, I had not heard of him until the NHL Draft, when he was chosen first overall in the 2005 NHL Draft. When he was drafted, I just considered him to be "another NHL superstar hopeful", but once he began dazzling people with his wide array of hockey skills, and maturity, both on and off the ice, I had a new favorite player in the NHL.
In one year of playing professional hockey, Crosby has become a fan of many, and has brought the Penguins back into both the national spotlight, and Stanley Cup contention. By doing so, Penguins GM Mario Lemieux has finally been able to get some sleep, and the Penguin faithful no longer have to worry about Pittsburgh losing a hockey franchise.
Being from Minnesota, I also found some interesting info about the man they call "Sir Sidney". Many people know that Crosby played some minor league hockey in Canada, but few know is that he played a year of hockey in the great state of Minnesota. When he was fifteen, his parents sent him to Shattuck-St.Mary's, a private school in rural Minnesota, best known for their success of molding young kids into great hockey players (Since 1996, 30 players who have attended Shattucks-St.Marys have gone on to be drafted in the NHL Entry Draft). There he played one year of bantam hockey before moving on to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League where his talent was truly noticed.
So even if your not a Crosby fan, or Wild fan, you should still try to get in front of the television set tonight, as the Pens/Wild will tangle in what seems to be a pretty good match up on Versus at 7:05 pm.
