In what ESPN is calling the “Pick That Saves Pittsburgh,” the Penguins skated away with the number one draft pick:
Sidney Crosby is a week away from joining Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Penguins beat out the remaining 29 NHL teams Friday in an unprecedented draft lottery that gave every club a chance to get the first pick and nab Crosby — the 17-year-old phenom from the Canadian juniors.
He will be chosen first next Saturday in Ottawa.
Pittsburgh joined Columbus, Buffalo and the New York Rangers with three balls in the 48-ball bin. The lottery was weighted to give teams that struggled in recent years a better chance.
The Penguins used that and the four-leaf clover general manager Craig Patrick carried in his palm to their advantage, edging Anaheim for No. 1.
Pittsburgh has already said it will take Crosby.
“I think he’s a fantastic fit,” Patrick said. “To be able to add someone of Sidney’s talent, my mind goes round and round with possibilities.”
Crosby has been the MVP two straight years while playing for Rimouski in the Canadian Hockey League. He has 120 goals and 183 assists in 121 games.
Now he’ll get a chance to play with Lemieux, who stars for and owns the Penguins.
“We trained together and skated together,” Crosby said. “He’s been great just to be around him. To see the way he handled himself, I learned a lot.”
I will not tolerate any blasphemy by way of statements such as ‘this is the second coming of Mario Lemieux,’ but I am so excited I have goose bumps.
MikeAdamson
He’s a fine young man to boot. Learned French while in junior and comes across as very curious about the world.
Stormy70
We’ll see what the Stars have to say aboot that. :)
Steve
The Penguins have never been quite the same since they changed logos.
Trent Baur
I thought this was a political site?
I’ve been cheering about Crosby all day long. After the Ovechin debacle and opening up the lottery to all the teams, i completely wrote off any chance of getting Crosby. What a shocker!
Looking for a good year. Gonna be a sight with Fleury, Crosby, Lemiuex and Recchi. 10 to 1 they bring back Kovalev and maybe Straka.
Hell, we need something to distract us from the dismal politcal scene, no?
Ok, back to the politics.
Go Pens!
Al Maviva
“This is just another example of how Bush destroyed the economy. He takes office, and the NHL immediately gets shut down, loses its television contract, and the players find themselves out of work. And in one case, drafted and shot by friendly fire in Afghanistunned. Before Bush’s insane defense buildup, hockey was a free flowing game; now it’s paralyzed with defense, defense, defense. It’s also really hateful against minorities and people with disabilities – Newfies, and people without teeth, for instance. And mental defectives like Tie Domi.
Also, Karl Rove leaked information to Bob Novak about the collective bargaining talks, which totally blew up as a result.
And goalie equipment is padded, just like Halliburton’s bills. In fact, it’s built by Halliburton, which made it 2/3ds too wide, so they could bill more for it.
We should follow the lead of Canada. In Canada, there’s more jobs to go around for hockey players, since they have free health care.
Moreover, Enron.”
Edanger6
Oh c’mon ANOTHER first round pick????? Lets see you have the first this year, the second last year (and Malkin was a Close second) and the first the year before (fluery) – absolutely ridiculous. The whole thing was fixed, FIXED I TELL YA. No worries though Ovechkin is better, and your 3 players (after maria goes on the IR) does not a team make.
jg
As much as I miss hockey I can’t see me going back to supporting a team owned by Jeremy Jacobs (Boston Bruins). I would need my own blog to list why.