Kara Yorio

Four people with television cameras jostle for position in the cramped visitors locker room at Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. This is a shot they can't miss. Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby is coming off the ice from the morning skate. He sits down alone — and he unties his skates.

Television doesn't get more riveting than that.

This is what it's like to be Crosby. At least, this is what it's like to watch what it's like to be Crosby, the 18-year-old phenom from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, who is at the center of the NHL's perfect storm. Crosby's much-anticipated arrival coincides with the league's return from a yearlong absence.

It's a league of new rules and new hope, and there's a lot riding on its new star.

With Crosby's skates successfully untied and off, the cameras are whisked away to join six others in the Sidney Crosby Press Conference Area. Microphones, a podium and chairs have been set up in a display previously seen in U.S. hockey circles only during the last two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But if you're a reporter hoping to be charmed or to fill a notebook with colorful quotes, you've come to the wrong place. Crosby still may be a teenager, but he already has spent years in the crosshairs of the press. He is polished, even-keeled, unfazed and unafraid to take advantage of cliches.

He is not the Controversial Kid.

But, hey, if you want controversy, go to Los Angeles and chat with Jeremy Roenick. If you want charm, move along to Calgary for a Q&A with Jarome Iginla.

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But if you want to see what all the talk is about, if you want a glimpse of what's predicted to be greatness, then suffer through Crosby's press conference and stick around for his first NHL game later that night.

At 7:39 p.m., Crosby takes the ice for his first shift. He breaks in on Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, makes one quick move, then flicks a backhand at the net, which Brodeur stops with ease. Crosby smiles, shakes his head and returns to the bench. After the game, he says that in juniors — where he played last season — the goalies would have bit on the first move, assuring him of a goal.

NHL lesson No. 1: Even though the teen has the talent to make it look easy, it won't be easy.

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Crosby learned that lesson repeatedly in an inauspicious first game. He did send a perfect assist to teammate Mark Recchi for the first point of his career and the Penguins' lone goal in the 5-1 loss. But he looked out of place at times, was on the ice for three of the Devils' goals and didn't play as much as Penguins fans would have liked.