It was a couple weeks ago and nearly every Penguin had stripped out of their sweat-soaked gear, spoken to or avoided the media, and left the locker room near empty at the Lemieux Sports Complex.
"Look around," Conor Sheary was telling me. "He's not here."
He, being Sidney Crosby. Wrongly, myself and a few others had assumed the captain had called it a day.
Nope, Crosby was still on the ice about 20 minutes after everyone else, still working on some aspect of his game or improving some weakness either real or imagined. The captain was at it again Wednesday, working with Derick Brassard well after the morning skate at Madison Square Garden.
"That's all you need to know," Sheary told me that day.
Thirteen years into this remarkable ride, which has included three Stanley Cups and just about every piece of individual hardware that a player can possibly earn, the fire still burns in Crosby to be the best.
Sid is no longer the Kid. He'll turn 31 this summer, the same age Mario Lemieux was when he hung up his skates for the first time in '97. Don't worry, that's not about to happen with Crosby. Players, especially of Crosby's ilk, are in far better shape than their predecessors. Think of 31 as the new 26.
Crosby has been the standard bearer for the league for a decade and has shown no signs of relinquishing the proverbial torch to Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Patrick Laine or anyone else. Not anytime soon, anyway.
"Those are great players," Kris Letang was telling me. "Sid's a different animal."
Last week in Toronto, Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, who worked with Crosby in the Olympics and World Cup for Team Canada, all but spit out his morning coffee when asked if Crosby had been surpassed.
“I don’t know who talks about someone going by him,” Babcock said. “It sure wasn’t me. He still sets the bar, no matter what anyone tells you.”
Last week Crosby reached the 1,100-point mark in his career and now ranks 61st all-time, fourth among active players. To be sure, 1,100 points isn't a nice, round number that's going to be celebrated but it's one of the few highlights during Crosby's 2017-18 season.
With just 23 goals, he's on pace for one of the lowest totals of his career, a far cry from his league-leading 44 markers last season. There are myriad reasons for the drop-off -- a slow start and a lack of consistent linemates chief among them -- but in no way does it diminish Crosby's place as the best player in the game.
Surely, Crosby is disappointed in his goal total, but he's just as driven to get back to the top, and not because of what someone else is doing.
"I've never been around an athlete, never mind a hockey player, that's as driven as Sid is," Mike Sullivan said. "He has a willingness to do it on a daily basis, to prepare himself to be the best. I think that's why he's been the best player in the game for the last decade. And he continues to be driven. As much as these guys come in the league and they're great players, it's exciting for our game, it's exciting for the league. Just from being around Sid a little bit and getting to know him as I have the last three years, no one's more internally driven than him."
Realistically, Crosby should finish his career with at least 1,700 points which would fittingly put him in the top 10 all-time.
In the bigger picture, what drives Crosby is winning and nothing will define his place in league history more than a fourth Stanley Cup.
• Of course you can't discuss Crosby without discussing his greatest personal adversary. The retirement this week of the Cleveland Browns' brilliant left tackle, Joe Thomas, stirred the great barroom debate as to who is the "best player to never win a championship." Reflexively, the names of Dan Marino and Barry Sanders are quickly brought up in the NFL.
In hockey, the answer is easy: Alex Ovechkin.
This week Ovi became just the 20th player in league history to reach the 600-goal mark in a season in which he should win his seventh Rocket Richard Trophy. The only players to do reach 600 in fewer games? Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull. The only player to win seven goal-scoring titles? Bobby Hull. That's pretty fair company.
The only thing missing on Ovechkin's resume, obviously, is a Stanley Cup. The Penguins have had a thing or three -- 2009, '16, '17 -- to do with that.
Don't care if you bleed black and gold, you have to appreciate Ovechkin for what he is: The greatest goal-scorer of his generation and a legendary talent. The hockey world is a better place with Ovechkin in it.
• On Monday, Marc-Andre Fleury reached the 400-win mark, becoming just the 13th goaltender in league history to do so and the second-fastest.
Among active goalies, only Roberto Luongo (467) and Henrik Lundqvist (430) have more wins. But, at 33 years of age, Fleury is five years younger than Luongo and three younger than Lundvqist.
Needless to say, it's well within reason to expect that Fleury -- even if the Golden Knights take a step back -- will win quite a few more games before he's done.
Barring something unforeseen, Fleury should reach 500 wins, which would put him behind only Patrick Roy (551) and Martin Brodeur (691). That alone would make Fleury a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame despite never winning a Vezina or being considered the best goalie of his generation -- or even in the top three.
All Fleury does is win. Suppose that trumps save percentage.
• Speaking of Fleury's new team, guess who's playing 9:15 a night for the Golden Knights? Yep, Ryan Reaves.
The blink-and-you-missed-him former Penguins enforcer is averaging 2:30 more per game in Vegas than he did in Pittsburgh.
He's also played more than 10 shifts in each of his first nine games with the Knights. He'd only done that in six of his last 15 games with the Penguins.
• Don't look now but the Blue Jackets have won six in a row. A Columbus-Pittsburgh first-round rematch doesn't need much hype, but throw the Ian Cole factor into it and it gets even more intriguing.
Cole has two goals and two assists with the Blue Jackets, who are 7-2 since acquiring the former Penguins defenseman. Think he wouldn't mind sticking it to a certain former coach?
• OK, Patric Hornqvist isn't going to surpass Mats Sundin as the all-time leading scorer for Swedish-born players. With the game-winner in Montreal on Thursday, Hornqvist recorded the 400th point of his career, or 949 fewer than the former Leafs captain.
Not bad though for "Mr. Irrelevant" in the 2005 draft, selected 229 spots after the Penguins selected Crosby first overall. Hornqvist is the ninth-leading scorer from the '05 draft. Kris Letang is eighth.
• The NBC Sports Network’s broadcast of Penguins-Rangers on Wednesday night, featuring Susan Sarandon as a between-the-benches "analyst" during the first period, was absolutely brutal to watch. Loved Sarandon in "Bull Durham" and "Dead Man Walking" but, wow, was this an ill-conceived idea.
It wasn't quite Heidi game embarrassing for the Peacock Network because national TV ratings for the NHL are miniscule.
Which was worse though: Sarandon, or NBC trying to pawn off next week's game between the Bruins and Blues as a "rivalry" night? They played each other in a Stanley Cup Final 48 years ago and it was a sweep. Granted, Bobby Orr scored his famous flying goal, but that hardly makes it a rivalry.
• I'm not a betting man, but if I were I certainly wouldn't wager much on Tiger Woods winning the Masters. Amazingly, after a second-place finish last week and a solid start this week at Bay Hill, Woods is now the betting favorite to win at Augusta.
If 42-year-old Tiger wins -- a decade removed from his last major -- it would be the greatest comeback story in sports this year, if not this decade. But I'm not betting on it.
• If Pitt's choice is going 0-36 in ACC play or going after Sean Miller and his alleged misdeeds, pretty sure it would be the latter. But why would Miller leave Arizona for what's becoming one of the worst situations in college basketball?
• Probably a good thing Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore didn't run my junior high baseball team. He wouldn't have had enough guys to field a team.