How’s this for quirky synergy? When Lemieux was drafted No. 1 in 1984, a goalie from his same Canadian junior league was chosen 240 spots later by Montreal. Troy Crosby never made it to the NHL, but his son will, starting Oct. 5.

Then Troy Crosby can put another picture on his wall in Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia.

“I’ve been told he’s got a photo in his den where he’s looking back into the net ... I was on a breakaway and I roofed it,” Lemieux said Saturday, describing a long-ago goal in the Quebec junior majors that No. 66 scored on the elder Crosby. “He was a little late on it.”

This time, though, a Crosby’s timing couldn’t be more right. Sidney Crosby is arriving just when the Penguins need him most, with a new arena still not a certainty and with the urgent need to re-establish the franchise at a critical time before its current arena lease expires in 2007.

“This is huge,” Lemieux said, relating how the momentum generated by Crosby’s presence could spur the arena effort.

“We’re on Cloud 9,” team president Ken Sawyer said. “This has probably been the greatest 24-hour period of building a team here since 1984.”

The Penguins did stage one ceremonial jersey-wearing ceremony Saturday: Recchi put on his No. 8 again, nearly a year after re-signing with the Penguins. But he knows he’s not the biggest news in town right now.

“It’s not Crosby, sorry,” he said, tugging on the Penguins jersey he last wore 13 years ago. “But that’s coming.”

The Penguins can’t wait.

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