Matt Cullen's cell was ringing. He glanced down at the screen and couldn't recognize the area code, much less the number.
This was the sixth of August, 2015, and Cullen had just taken pen to paper on a one-year, $800,000 contract with the Penguins, an event that drew pretty much the fanfare one would expect for a 39-year-old center signing for close to the NHL minimum.
So who could possibly be calling?
"Hello, is this Matt?"
The voice sounded familiar.
"This is Sidney Crosby."
Cullen's carried the Stanley Cup. He's played on both coasts with some of the league's best and brightest. So it's not like hearing from anyone in the sport would floor him. What followed was a casual conversation.
And then ...
"The next day, we're out house-shopping," Cullen was recalling Saturday afternoon inside Consol Energy Center's home locker room, well after the Penguins' 6-3 punchout of the Rangers in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series. "I'm not talking about advice or giving tips. I mean, he was out there with me to show me the houses himself, places he thought where I could be comfortable."
Cullen shook his head in looking to his left toward the captain's stall.
"Think about that. Who am I? I'm some fourth-line guy coming here to this team loaded with stars and ... that showed me something. It did."
What might it have shown?
"This is a guy who wants to win. That's all he wants. That's all he's about. That's what everyone's seeing right now."
Remember Crosby being crosschecked in the head from behind by Marc Staal in 2014?
It's the most painful memory from the Penguins blowing that 3-1 series lead. Because it reminded not only of the never-ending concussion concerns, but also that things weren't really changing at all. Not for him, not for his team. He had one goal in 13 playoff games that spring. His wrist wasn't strong enough to try shots, let alone finish them. His linemates weren't swift or strong enough to help. On top of that, he was being bashed by Blue Jackets and Blueshirts alike, with the referees and league officials turning a collective blind eye.
And maybe the great unspoken through that time, if we're being candid, was that Crosby could have handled it all better. He'd bark at officials. He'd see red when he saw orange. He'd hang his head. He'd stay quiet.
Sure, he had cause to be upset. But that didn't mean that he or his team benefited from it.
In the second period Saturday, Crosby undressed Staal with a move more likely to be witnessed among bantam kids at Bethel Park Bladerunners than in the NHL:
He just drifted the puck into open space behind Staal, cut a violent turn into the ice and dared the defenseman to a footrace he knew he'd win.
Which do you suppose hurt more, Staal's stick to the head or Crosby's blow to the ego?
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Here's how that sequence continued, by the way, with Crosby pulling up hard at the blue line, then feeding Conor Sheary for this whip over the glacial glove of Henrik Lundqvist:
I asked Sheary if, given that Crosby had another option farther over to the left in Ian Cole, he might have called out for the pass.
"Oh, I did. Really loud, too," Sheary replied before going deadpan. "But I don't think it mattered. It's not like he didn't know where I was and what he wanted to do."
Much will be made in coming days over Crosby and his new linemate, including contrasts with the many previous linemates who came and went. It's been one of the most common criticisms through his career, the notion that he doesn't improve the players around him.
Could be he just needed fresher legs around him. Chris Kunitz might have scored that same goal two or three years ago. Sheary scores it now.
The setup would have been no less sweet.
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By mid-January, during a trip to Florida, Jim Rutherford, his lieutenants and Mike Sullivan had made up their minds: The AHL call-ups were here to stay. That began with Rutherford telling our site regarding Bryan Rust, "He's never going back," and it soon flowed into Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl and others staking similar claims.
Rust had two goals in this game. Sheary's was his second of the series. Kuhnhackl had a monster short-handed goal in Game 1.
Crosby took them all out for steak.
That, not coincidentally, occurred right after that trip to Florida. Crosby was aware of management's sentiment regarding these players. He also shared it. Game after game, when I'd ask about this veteran or that veteran, he'd come back with something akin to "Yeah, but did you see what Oskar Sundqvist did tonight?" And he appreciated it enough that he took all of the new kids out to dinner at a Downtown restaurant, then picked up the tab, then made clear to all of them why they were there.
"He told us, 'This is it. You're with us now. So let's go. Let's make this happen,' Rust recalled after this game. "It's something we'll never forget."
"I think when we first came up, there was this thought when you looked around this room, like, wow," Sheary said. "I mean, I was in high school watching Sidney Crosby play hockey, like the biggest fan, and now I'm here."
By here, he meant the next stall.
"And you'd think someone like that wouldn't have time for a young kid. But he's been unbelievable with me, with all of us."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OaH9jBjV30
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It was Oct. 28, and the Penguins were in Washington. They'd just won in Nashville despite some mindnumbingly dumb decisions by Mike Johnston, and they'd just beaten the Capitals, too. And yet, bizarrely, the scene had the feel of a disaster. Rutherford stood outside the locker room, stewing. The players were flinging equipment.
Well away from the pack, down the hallway, Crosby stood alone. Eyes wide. As silent and lost as his GM in every apparent way.
I don't make a habit of asking captains about their coaches. That's not cool.
But I asked, anyway, on this night. And he didn't answer. Wouldn't even look my way.
I took that how I wanted. You can take it however you'd like.
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It was March 8, and the Penguins were in Brooklyn. Phil Kessel, visibly rattled after whiffing in front of an open net with six seconds left on what would have been the tying goal, had just blown up on one of the team's media relations workers who requested that he be interviewed. It was an ugly scene that threatened to get uglier if any cameras were to come around.
Kessel, still steaming, went to Crosby to complain. And that's where he found out he wasn't in Toronto anymore, where circuses are the norm. Crosby put one hand on Kessel's shoulder, ushered him into a hallway and spoke to him in a soft but stern tone. And half a minute later, Kessel walked in a straight line to the waiting pack of reporters, grudgingly but honestly answered all questions, then left the room without further incident.
Ever since that night, which was the culmination of a long, lousy stretch, Kessel has been the Penguins' most consistent scorer, with nine goals and 14 assists over 21 games, including these two opening strikes Saturday:
Leadership comes in all forms and at all points in a long season.
What if the group had lost Kessel that night?
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Matt Murray is the most popular man in town. He entered this series in Game 3 and did nothing but win. He might even be too hot for Sullivan to take out once the Capitals or Flyers are on top.
But don't discard, even peripherally, what Jeff Zatkoff meant by winning Game 1 and keeping the Penguins from being badly damaged by their boneheaded performance in Game 2. He was getting as many high-fives as Murray in that locker room Saturday.
I asked Zatkoff in that room who meant the most to him when times were toughest a couple months ago, when Rutherford recalled Murray and informed Zatkoff he'd be No. 3.
"I consider Sid to be a great friend as much as he's my captain," Zatkoff said. "And when I needed a friend the most, he was there for me. He made sure I knew how much I was appreciated and respected."
He paused for a moment, clearly cementing another thought.
"It's always been the case with Sid that people focus on his offense and what he does on the ice. I don't think they realize how much he does for the team off the ice. He's a true leader. He's someone who guys follow. He's someone we follow on the bench. We respond to how he's reacting. We read off him. We feed off his energy. And we know that he cares about all of us, with how he stays here so long every day, how he's always got time. You can't imagine what that means in here."
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The Penguins didn't want a Game 6. They didn't want to go back to New York. They've seen what the Rangers did the past two seasons, including two years ago to them, and they've seen a slew of teams in the current playoffs roaring back.
"No thanks," Kris Letang said. "Not again."
That message was sent verbally by Sullivan, but it was sent where it counts by Crosby, as this fasten-your-seat-belt scene in the second period showed:
When Jonathan Toews so much as breathes in a determined fashion, the NBC commentators hyperventilate, the Chicago press carves every syllable into marble, and the fawning narrative then consumes the hockey world.
When Crosby speaks, as he did Saturday about avoiding Game 6, it sounds like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdvPQPOZMwY
Funny, but that understated tone resonates a little louder every four years when Crosby is Toews' captain at the Olympics, leading his country to gold.
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Crosby has been knocked down, he's gotten back up again, and he's been knocked back down even less legally than the first time. He's been beaten in the playoffs by Tuukka Rask-level, but more than that, he's been hammered relentlessly by pedestrian pests like Brandon Dubinsky and Dominic Moore.
This happened in the second period:
It's undeniable that the Penguins stormed through this round with contributions from all forward lines, all defense pairings, the entirety of the goaltending depth chart and, of course, the direction and dynamism of Sullivan. And it didn't hurt, at least not eventually, that Evgeni Malkin bounced back beautifully.
But never forget: This franchise is about its captain.
It's about Crosby when he's slumping, when he's streaking, when he goes silent in the biggest games and when he's the series' top scorer, as he just was with three goals and five assists. It's about different players at different times, whether that's Malkin or Letang from the back end or even a minor miracle such as the AHL call-ups, but it's always about Crosby over any sustained span.
This is, indeed, Sidney Crosby, as he introduced himself to Cullen last summer.
This is one of the great leaders in the game, with a Cup and two gold medals to his credit.
This is a model citizen in an era when more eyes than ever are on professional athletes.
This is the best hockey player in the world.
Again.
