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sidsthekid · 7 months

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sid was on this episode of 32 thoughts as part of the player media tour! his interview starts at 33:55.

here's a script under the 'keep reading' if you want to check it out! sorry beforehand for any typos, i used premiere pro to transcribe this and tried to do my best at proofreading.

my personal favorite tidbit from sid:

"...So it's, you know, it's just constantly learning. So I've always had that mentality, and I think that's an important one. And, you know, when you have the passion for it, when you love it, that comes pretty easy."

Jeff Marek: Sidney Crosby. It was the summer of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was the summer of Kyle Dubas. It was a summer of Erik Karlsson and all eyes are on your team to kick off the season. How do you feel about that?

Sidney Crosby: I'm okay. It's for a different reason than maybe other years. I mean, you know, there's been a lot of turnover, like you said, and coming off the last year where we just let it slip there late. It was disappointing, but we should be a motivated group because of that and then because of all the changes like you mentioned.

Elliott Friedman: So I'm curious the the night you flew in, I guess, to meet with Dubas, is that- is that is that not true then?

Sidney Crosby: No. So what happened was, is he was coming to visit and I had just got back from vacation and it just happened that I was coming back into town for a day or two that said that he was, you know, going to the practice rink. So I just happened to be there at the same time and had the opportunity to meet him. But it wasn't like some- it was really last minute.

Elliott Friedman: You've rolled your eyes a lot at me over the years. That was a good one.

Sidney Crosby: Yeah, I didn't- I didn't fly in like it was actually the way it worked out. It was perfect. I was literally home for, like, an hour. He had me go to the practice rink, so it worked out well. I could go, you know, meet him and say hi. And at that point, nothing was for sure. I think he was just trying to check things out, get a lay of the land and take a look.

So it wasn't- it was far from, you know, being permanent and it just worked out well. It was nice to get a chance to talk to him. And, you know, I didn't know at that point, but I was glad I had the opportunity to meet him.

Elliott Friedman: What was the most interesting thing he either asked you or said to you?

Sidney Crosby: It's hard to pick one. I think he was just trying to see where I was at, just as what I thought, you know, with the season, you know, it was pretty fresh at that point. And I think, you know, as people in hockey, everyone has their own opinions and you're not there, you're not in it. But I think he just wanted to see how I felt and where I thought, you know, the team was at.

And I think coming off the season that we did, obviously it was- it was so disappointing. And I still felt like we were pretty competitive. And for the most part, we pretty good. We struggled in our division against, you know, the Islanders and Carolina. I think we lost every game against those two teams. But you take those games away and, you know, we were right there and once you get anything can happen.

You saw Florida. So as tough as it was, I was still pretty optimistic about our group and thought we weren't far off. So I don't know how he took that, but he seemed pretty encouraged, too, and seemed to see see the same same way.

Jeff Marek: How do you see Kyle Dubas as your general manager? You've had a number of general managers. When you started there Craig Patrick, who was the general manager Ray Shero, Jim Rutherford, etc., how would you compare Dubas to all the other managers you've had?

Sidney Crosby: I'd say he's probably like the most new age when you when you think of a GM and just with all the analytics and all the development stuff that goes into organization. You know, obviously being a part of the Leafs, there's lots of opportunity to add to staff. And you know, you look at there, you know, every staff really and training staff and medical and development, everyone that's there it's a huge organization and they really had every opportunity to kind of build that.

And he was a big part of that. So it's just cool. Like for me, I've seen hockey evolve. You know, you go from one strength coach 2 to 3 and, you know, all the sports science and all the development roles and player development and everything that goes into that. So I think he's somebody who is constantly trying to add to that and be ahead of the curve.

And I think he's brought that approach, not that the other guys didn't, but I think that's been something that's really been his specialty from, you know, from coming from there.

Jeff Marek: We always focus so much on what's different, what's different. This is change is to change. This is- this is different. The one I broke in. But from your point of view, like what is the one constant in your hockey life, whether it's training, whether it's whatever it is. Is there one thing that, you know, going back to my first game in Rimouski to you know, last year at the end of the season, this is non-negotiable. I always do this. This is the same.

Sidney Crosby: Yeah, I think you just got to learn. I mean, you got to learn, you got to evolve. So that's that's how I look at it. I mean, there's things that, you know, I believe in that helped me when I was younger player that I feel like I still need to do and and then there's other things where, you know, you have to find a way to evolve and and learn from, you know. Whether it's things you've done well in previous years or not done so well.

And as you age, managing, you know, your energy a little bit and, you know, trying to find that balance. So it's, you know, it's just constantly learning. So I've always had that mentality, and I think that's an important one. And, you know, when you have the passion for it, when you love it, that comes pretty easy.

Elliott Friedman: I reached out to just some of your teammates that are going to be talking today, and one of them said, I don't know if I've ever seen him as pissed off as he was at the end of last season. What pissed off Sidney Crosby last year?

Sidney Crosby: How it was just such a struggle for us to find consistency. You know, at one point I think we won seven in a row, then we lost seven in a row. As a guy that's been in different situations to get into the playoffs, I mean, I've been the situation where you're first all year and you just ride that into the playoffs and then, you know, the year that we won in 16, it was like we were out of the playoffs and then went on a great run and had momentum going in and just caught fire.

This was a new a new situation for us. We were kind of chasing it right from early on, but we had put ourselves in a spot to get it, you know, like it wasn't like, you know, it was a miracle. We needed- I mean, we needed to win our last two games and, you know, to get to go through all that, all the ups and downs and to be in a position to, you know, to get in and not be able to find a way.

That's something we had done in years past. And we didn't do it this time. So that was frustrating. And there's nothing better than playing the playoffs. I mean, at this point that's the most exciting thing. I mean, you get up for the matchups throughout the regular season and you have that motivation. But playoff hockey is just that's why you play.

You just crave that, you crave that atmosphere, that environment and the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup.

Elliott Friedman: Last one for me. There's someone who said to me that they really think that what the NHL needs is you and Connor McDavid on the same team playing for Team Canada. That's what this sport badly needs. I want to ask you what you thought about that.

Sidney Crosby: Yeah, I mean, any opportunity we can get to play for Canada and you know, he's mentioned a ton of times the best on best seeing, you know, seeing that, seeing all the other countries. You know, you look at their their lineups. I mean, it's pretty tight. I mean, there's no real favored team. I mean, it's easy to say Canada because we've had success, the Olympics and and that sort of thing.

But I mean, the hockey is incredible. And from my experience, it doesn't really get any better than that. When you're looking at the lineups and you're looking the players that are assembled and, you know, any opportunity I can get and it's too bad it hasn't worked out for a while here, but it's looking like that could change. So, you know, that'd be awesome.

Elliott Friedman: Who moves to the wing?

Sidney Crosby: I'll go there, haha.

Elliott Friedman: No, you're supposed to say he goes there! No, he goes there, you're supposed to say he goes there!

Sidney Crosby: Haha. Listen, I’ve skated with him. And I've played both. I think I'm good either way with playing center wing. Whatever he wants to do, he can carry the mail. I'll just. I'll find the find the open- the open spots.

Jeff Marek: That's right. Let me wrap this up by asking a question about a big picture question here. One of the great things about hockey is it can be kind of vague. It's not really black and white. I am curious now that you've been in the game for so long, have an expanded vision about it. What confuses players is what confuses you about the game, What confuses your teammates about the game?

Sidney Crosby: I would say maybe just suspensions. I think that, you know, maybe, you know, penalties are always going to be like that. We're always going to question, you know, what we saw. It's so easy with replay. We can, you know, dissect it. But I would say, you know, it's it's still something where you see a highlight, you see a clip and you don't know the range of a suspension.

You don't know whether it's going to be a suspension or not. That's that's how I feel. I know it's not an easy job for anybody, but yeah, I still feel like there's a bit of a gray area there. And, you know, I don't think anyone's ever going to agree on length or, you know, that sort of thing or what the intentions were on a play.

That's always going to be debatable. But I'd like to think that we can get a little bit closer to what it is exactly. And and maybe what the what the punishment is.

Jeff Marek: Great player, a great thinker of the game. Sidney, thanks as always for stopping by.

Sidney Crosby: All right. Thanks for having me.

#great stuff #i bet a video will come out soon #sidney crosby #just a kid #pittsburgh penguins #hockey

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starbuck · 5 months

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Obligatory disclaimer that folks can have any interpretation they want and I’m not here to take that away but, to ME, The Narrative absolutely is distinct from the “free” choices of the characters.

The Narrative is the overarching narrative force that dictates the outcome of a story from before it even begins and controls the actions of the characters forced to play it out. It is the story, the author, God, destiny, necessity, all of the above.

While every story has an author, some are more open-ended than others. Prequels tend to have unusually high levels of The Narrative since we already know how their stories end (Black Sails, Better Call Saul), as do re-told versions of well-known stories (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Robert Icke’s Oresteia, Jesus Christ Superstar).

Could the characters have made different decisions and averted their terrible ends? I mean, I guess? Sometimes? I’m not saying that there are NO “free” choices in any of these stories but, for some characters, it does very much feel like their ending was inevitable no matter what choices they made. They were well and truly trapped.

When I made the post about tragedies with less focus on The Narrative and more on the individual decisions of characters, I meant something very specific which is that occasionally there are stories where it feels like the characters actually could have made better decisions, but chose not to, not because The Narrative was forcing their hand, but because they simply didn’t feel like it.

The Narrative is ALWAYS at play, to some degree (hence my scare quotes around “free”), but sometimes its influence is stronger than others, even within the same story.

But yeah, anyway, that’s just my thoughts. This is definitely all very subjective and up for interpretation tho, so feel free to disagree!

#woohoo! this doesn’t matter #but the ‘we’ just got me - so i had to respond #like - cool interpretation! i don’t share it though!#okay no one more Hot Take though…#a GREAT kind of story is when The Narrative comes in and does one (1) thing #and sets the rest of the tragedy off #and EVERYTHING after that is ‘free’ individual choices #that WERE preventable #but the characters were so heavily influenced by that initial Thing that they can’t accept their own freedom #like. beloved. You actually COULD walk out!!!!#YOU COULD LEAVE!!!!!!#great stuff

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