Sidney Crosby Quotations

The biggest thing for me is the passion that I've always had for hockey. I remember growing up, no matter what I did in life, my parents always told me to try to do my best at it and be my best. I can say going through different things that passion is the most important part. It's not skills or talent or any of that stuff.

The more you hesitate in a game, the more your chance of getting hit. Your focus isn't there. When you hesitate, usually you're in trouble.

Whether you're trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, I've always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether it's as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that.

People are going to have their opinions. Whether it's good or bad, I don't really think about it either way.

I'm not picky. When I'm hungry, I eat.

I think as a Canadian hockey player, you go through it in your mind so many times, being able to stand on that blue line and hear your national anthem play and being a gold medal champion, you dream of that. And then to be able to accomplish that and actually win a gold medal and represent your country its an amazing feeling.

I'm most comfortable definitely when I'm on the ice. I love to play. It's something that I just love to do.

I am putting pressure on myself to do my best and perform to my potential.

I don't have one favourite band. I like everything.

I don't think you're human if you don't get nervous.

I think every athlete will tell you no matter what sport you're in, when you train so hard and when you care so much about doing what you do, there's a little bit of nerves that come with that. But nerves that won't prevent you form performing, nerves that, hopefully, allow you to be that much more motivated and inspired to do well.

I didn't realize the connection between the mullet and success. For sure, you have to have a little bit of hockey hair - a little bit of flow, as they say. A lot of guys have fun with their hockey hair, so I'll try to keep it a little long.

I try to stay pretty level-headed and just do what I have to do.

Challenging someone is good. You need to do it. Sometimes they don't even realize you're doing it, like when you joke with a goalie, 'What's wrong today? You losing it?

For me, I've learned that the best thing is to focus on the team you play for and yourself and what you need to do.

I want to be the best, so whatever comes with that, I'll have to accept.

I'll be the first one to admit my first couple of years I was pretty hard on the refs.

It's really football, tennis, and golf that I watch other than hockey.

Individual honors and scoring championships are great, but my No. 1 goal is to win the Stanley Cup.

For every whack I've given, I've gotten four or five.

I always wanted to be the best and to get the most out of myself.

My favorite player would probably be Steve Yzerman. He played in Detroit. I really liked the way he played and the way he handled himself.

When you get a typical injury, you're given a time frame; you're gradually working towards getting back. With concussions, there is not generally a time frame or a span where you're feeling better. You feel like you're getting better, and it can be one day and you're back to where you started.

In football, every play, play after play, there's that physicality. Football players only play once a week, so they must really need to rest. That does kind of tell you how physical the sport is. But in hockey, you have the boards. I just couldn't say which is more physical.

It is so important to me to have my time away from hockey. Obviously, hockey is my passion; I love it. But definitely for me, time away from the rink and time when my mind isn't thinking about hockey is important.

Obviously, I don't want to be in the box for over a hundred minutes during the season, but at the same time I have to try to play with an edge and battle out there.

When I'm practicing, I think I'm pretty focused, and I spend a lot of energy on making sure I get better, but once I'm outside the rink, I think, like anyone else, I like to enjoy everything that everyone else does.

It's not that hard to stay grounded. It's the way I was brought up.

Concussions are still kind of a mysterious thing.

In my situation there are often things I need to do for the team, so when I get the chance to relax it's all I want to do.

Growing up in Canada, I didn't watch football much.

I watched 'Mighty Ducks.' 'Slapshot' when I was a little older.

Breakaway goals are fun. When you score a quick one in front of the net, it just happens, but during a breakaway, there's about one or two seconds where you're not sure.

When we finally got going, we had them back on their heels.

With the loss of Mario, there's a lot of leadership lost there so I think they want to step up and show that even more. They're experienced guys and they're trying to lead the way.

We're just playing pretty solid hockey right now and not making too many big mistakes. Five on five, we're making it really tough for teams to play us. We're skating, and we're not giving them a lot of opportunities in our end, for the most part. We have to continue to play like that.

We'll see ... I think it depends on the swelling, ... If it's swollen like this, we'll probably just wait. If it's still swollen, and because it's swollen, the left foot probably doesn't fit in a skate.

We're happy to get another one. We worked hard and we deserved it. Sure, we got a bounce. But other teams have gotten bounces against us, too. But we earned it.

So I did the same thing and figured he'd commit the same way. But only I went to the side and went to the backhand.

Oh yeah, I noticed it. Everyone was standing up. He's a great player. I watched that playoff run.

Montreal and Toronto are two teams that I watched a lot growing up. Definitely, when the schedule came out these were the games I was looking forward to.

Maybe there will be some other firsts, but I don't look at a two-goal game too high up on the firsts list,

Obviously, this is a new level, but the pressure has always been there,

Obviously for the style of game we want to play, we want to go 60 minutes and don't want to take any time off. You have to be in shape to play 60 minutes and this is part of getting prepared to do that.

Nothing close to the extent of what he was saying, let's put it that way.

Points don't always tell the story, but it went well definitely, ... I'm being challenged to think faster and be more creative, especially with guys like this.

I would be more upset if I was playing a wide-open style and then it changed,

If we're down five goals, obviously guys are a little more edgy. It just seemed like both teams weren't really worried about scoring anymore. They just wanted to make sure they were sticking together as a team out there.

If we compete, that's not going to happen.

I didn't anticipate anything I was just showing up and seeing what the town and people were about, but it was a very welcoming sight. I'm sure the energy and excitement in town are going to rub off on the players. It's nice to see everybody's so excited about getting hockey started.

I don't feel like I'm where I need to be. For the most part, I was all right out there. I think I have some more energy I need to get.

I'd definitely like to have more energy than I did (Saturday). I'm just trying to fight through it. I had a few chances, it wasn't like I was terrible out there, but I think there's still another level that I have left in me that I haven't hit yet.

I am definitely looking forward to getting on the ice every day and meeting the guys here.

But there's not much we can say when you score a highlight-reel goal like that. It was nice, and it was a good second effort. Some guys would have just thrown in the towel and let their body slide into the boards, but he stayed with it and got his stick on it.

I felt pretty good (Monday) but it's not a game; there's a lot less movement.

I feel very fortunate to be in this situation. A lot of guys ... who are drafted early go to a team that's maybe rebuilding, but that's not the case here.

I feel very fortunate to be in this situation, ... A lot of guys ... who are drafted early go to a team that's maybe rebuilding, but that's not the case here.

I don't think we're overjoyed. Wins are expected, and that's the way it needs to be. I don't think we're up on Cloud Nine. It's a great win and we will not take anything away from it, but we have a lot of games left and we have to take the good things from this game and carry them on.

I expected the speed and the size of guys to be a little different than junior, and that I'd have to adapt to that. But as the first week's gone by, I think I feel pretty comfortable with that.

I don't think it's something I'm really worried about. Obviously, I know there's a lot of things going on about getting a new arena and the team being put up for sale. But besides that, I don't know the ins and outs, and I don't think it's my concern to worry about that too much.

I don't think one moment sticks out more than any other. It was just great to play with him. We had a great game on the Island (against the New York Islanders) and scored a couple of goals. It was really fun. And the game against Atlanta where he scored five points -- that was memorable, too. I'll never forget that.

For me to say I could have helped, it's pretty hard to say that. I respect all the players that were there. They did their best to bring back gold. It's unfortunate that it came up short, but it's going to make everyone more hungry for 2010.

For me to look far ahead would be a lot of years wasted, and a lot of time and work wasted, ... I've done the same thing since I was six -- try to get better and have fun playing hockey.

For me to come into this situation, I feel pretty lucky. When you're drafted early, a lot of guys come into a situation that's rebuilding. That's not the case here.

He went hard to the net and that's what you have to do to score. It's nice to see a guy like that get a goal when he has a chance to play on the top line.

He has been making me feel comfortable and familiarized me with what's here. That's the main thing, just being around him and seeing how he goes about things every day.

He got his hands up in my face. We both probably got away with a penalty. That's the way he plays. I just have to compete against guys like that.

He does it year after year. He's quick and smart. He can play the puck. He can do it all.

He made some big saves. They were shooting everything tonight, putting a lot of pucks on net. We don't want to have to give him that much work, but I don't think we're ever worried. No matter what teams throw at him, he seems to respond well. We'll try to help him a little bit more.

He moved it pretty quick and got the glove there. It was just a split-second decision to go there.

This wasn't our best at all. But, trust me, we've played a lot of good hockey games and not won.

The people in Buffalo called their supervisor from the baggage area out on the ramp, and I spoke to him, ... He said he had unloaded that plane and that he was positive it didn't happen here.

We're playing solid hockey and not making too many very big mistakes. We're not giving up a lot of opportunities, and we have to continue to play like that.

He's a good goalie and made a great save.

Going through two years of junior, it taught me a lot about myself, how I can handle it, ... You have to worry about hockey. Handle stuff outside of that when you need to, but just worry about hockey. That's what I learned.

Going through this is a lot of adversity -- let's be honest, there is a little bit of pressure because we haven't been winning -- and if we can get through this, we'll be better for it, ... It's not an ideal situation but now we realize it's tough to win and we have to be ready every night. We have to dig deep and play determined and play desperate.

He's been through everything that I'm going through, ... I try to handle things in a similar way to how he handles them.

Hockey's lost a great player and a great person. I don't think it will change anything for me, but this happening makes a lot of the younger guys realize what he meant to the team and the city. It makes you want to do things for the team and the city that he did, because the city has been unbelievable to us. It's just treated us great. We've got great fans here.

He's been awesome. I think especially for the younger guys, it's been great having him show us the way. He's a great leader. We really hope he comes back. I think he's meant a lot to us, and he's been playing great hockey, too. So, we definitely hope to see him back. I'll try to talk to him and convince him.

He's been a positive ever since he got here. He had a couple nice hits the last couple games. He's not the biggest guy, but he plays big and he has a big heart. That's important on any team and he's got to keep doing that. He's been great for us.

Jack Johnson is my roommate and he's been going to a few meetings, ... It's definitely a nerve-racking time and I feel for him a little bit.

Just seeing him score five points in one game this season ... those were memories I will take.

I think it's kind of getting old talking about it, to be honest with you. It's something where we just have to play hockey and not worry about the officials, who we have total confidence in.

I think it's just repetition, getting used to it. As well, I think after you do it so many times and you're rewarded with opportunities or being in tight hockey games, when you see it's working, it's easy to use. Everyone's buying in and realizing it can make a difference, so everyone's doing their part and really just trying to contribute in that way, making sure we all stick together.

I think that happens to everyone. I'm sure guys get mad and go after guys from time to time and might want to hurt them, and then later they feel they shouldn't have done that, but that's just the nature of the game.

I was disappointed because I knew it was close, that I was in the mix. I have to realize it's up to me to earn another chance, though you don't know what's four years down the road. I still love getting up and going to the rink. I'm living my dream. I'm not taking anything for granted.

I was anxious to get started. There was so much anti-cipation. I wanted to get in the routine of playing games. It was just nice to be on a team, not competing against these guys in camp (but) trying to work together to win.

I was anxious to get started, ... There was so much anticipation. I wanted to get in the routine of playing games. It was just nice to be on a team, not competing against these guys in camp (but) trying to work together to win.

I was anxious to get started, ... There was so much anticipation. It was just nice to be on a team, not competing against these guys in camp (but) trying to work together to win.

I thought things went pretty well. I think I can play here and help the team. I just want to continue to improve.

I think we made it easy for them to play against us. We can't play many more games like we did tonight or else it's going to make the next games tough.

I think we just realized that was bad luck. I think we knew we were carrying the play in the first, so we weren't too worried.

I think we were rested, it was just one of those nights where it seemed that everyone couldn't get their game going. When that happens, it's tough to win.

It goes by fast. When it's your first year, a lot of times it goes by slower just because everything's new. I can't imagine it going by any faster than it has this year. It's scary, but it's been fun and I want to finish as best as possible.

I think to be great, you have to prove that you're the best year after year after year and show that by winning. I think that's something you have to earn. You have to prove that. I don't really think about it. I think that's something that's too far ahead for me.

I think that we gave them momentum when we took those penalties. You can't give a great team like that chances because they are going to take advantage. We just weren't able to fight those off and that was the difference in the game.

Just being around him is going to help me ? the little questions about things in town, where things are, just seeing about how he goes about things every day, ... On the ice, it's good for me to see some of these older guys who've been in the league for a lot of years and see how they practice, just get into good habits. Being around those guys, it's going to rub off.

I saw Whitney break his stick and they had a 2-on-2, but there was a guy going to the net and (Whitney) didn't have a stick to stop the pass. I yelled his name and got my stick to him the best way I could. I wasn't sure if they were going to call a penalty but I was just trying to save a goal because I knew the pass was going to get to him.

Some guy was just yelling at me. It wasn't the first time. I'm not going out there to start something with a fan by any means, not at all. But it gets to the point where some of the things they say cross the line. Trust me, I don't usually talk to fans.

That caught him good. He had a bad back before that, and now, a shoulder. And with the way things were going, I'm sure he was just mentally and physically tired.