from Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail,

We tend to forget that Sidney Crosby saved hockey.

That was the narrative pinned to him as he was drafted nearly a decade ago. The NHL had just lost the 2004-05 season. People were throwing around words like “beleaguered” and “troubled” in connection with the sport.

Though it didn’t turn out this way, everyone assumed hockey was going to take a post-lockout, baseball-style nosedive in popularity.

n the midst of all that angst and expectation, Crosby floated into our lives. He’s been there 10 years. It feels like 30. Crosby has risen to the highest conceptual plane any pro can reach – he’s become a means by which we measure time in our own lives.

He’s still only 27. But as Crosby begins to take on the lean look of athletic middle age, we’re reminded just how much older we’ve become since he arrived.

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