Readers will love The Spectacular Sidney Crosby

Originally published on HockeyCanada.ca in 2005

By Lucas Aykroyd

To build a winning team, you ultimately have to focus on the players you have, not the ones you don’t have. (Just ask Brent Sutter.) But it’s hard to forget about a certain teenage wunderkind who lit it up for Canada at the 2004 and 2005 IIHF World Junior Championships. Even though S.C. (Sidney Crosby) is busy chasing the S.C. (Stanley Cup) with the Pittsburgh Penguins these days, the 18-year-old center would still be young enough to represent his country at the 2006 and 2007 tournaments, were he available.

If you’d like to relive some of the thrilling moments in the career of the young star widely heralded as the successor to Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, The Spectacular Sidney Crosby by Andrew Podnieks is the way to go. In this new, fast-paced account, the Toronto-based hockey historian presents many great anecdotes about the pride of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, including the origin of Crosby’s jersey number 87, the way he dealt with controversy after being criticized by Hockey Night in Canada’s Don Cherry, and the impact he had on QMJHL attendance figures while with the Rimouski Oceanic.

Which team did Sidney score against to become the youngest goal-scorer in the history of the IIHF World Junior Championship? What unselfish decision did he make when placed on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Corey Perry in 2005? How did he step up in the first three games of that tournament? Podnieks has the answers.

The Spectacular Sidney Crosby is replete with glossy photos, including more than a dozen shots of Crosby sporting the Team Canada logo. And as everyone knows, we’re sure to see him donning the red-and-white jersey again many times in the future.