BY: DUSTIN POLLACK

If it’s at all possible, Sidney Crosby looked better in his return to the NHL after a 10-month layoff than he did when he left (He was on pace for 64 goals and 132 points.) Crosby’s return on November 21st was emphatic; the 24-year-old scored two goals and added two assists, leading the Penguins to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders.

But now, less than a month after his triumphant return, Crosby is back on the shelf, for an indefinite amount of time. Once again every hockey fan crosses their fingers and holds their breath hoping he returns sooner than later, better than ever, perhaps even concussion proof although we all know that’s not possible. And the odds of him experiencing another setback at some point are all the more likely.

For a generation of fans, Sidney Crosby is more than just the best in the game right now, he’s the best they’ve ever seen and maybe the best they’ll ever see.

The generation whose parents were merely teens when Paul Henderson scored in 1972; the generation that was far too young to appreciate Wayne Gretzky; the generation that probably remembers Mr. Dressup more than Mario Lemieux hoisting back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 90’s. We weren’t ready to care about the players who are now legends and now can we can only tune into YouTube or the TSN Top 10 for some of the best moments, the greatest to ever play offered the game and its fans.

Besides the clips I’ve seen on TV and online years after the fact, I admit my memories of Gretzky are few. I vaguely remember him waving to the crowd at Madison Square Garden after he played the final game of his career, and other than that my next biggest memory of Gretzky might be those hideous white and black Nike skates he wore late in his career.

But, I can say that I remember just about all the big moments of Crosby’s career thus far – or at least most of them. The hype that surrounded him during his draft year, the slimy first goal, the first trip to the Stanley Cup, the first Stanley Cup, the Golden Goal, the great battle between him and Ovechkin during the 2009 playoffs, the shootout winner at the Winter Classic in 2008. Crosby – prior to another head injury – was well on his way to hockey supremacy. In fact in many ways, he’s already there.

Prior to his injury (pick between the Steckel hit, the Hedman hit or the Krejci accidental elbow), it seemed as though there was no limit to the accolades Crosby could achieve in his career. In five and a half seasons (if you count the 41 games in 2010-2011) Crosby has done what most never get to do as an NHLer, even if they play in the NHL from 18 years old until 40. A Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold, a Hart trophy, an Art Ross trophy and a Maurice Richard trophy as the leagues leading goal scorer in 2010.

And as we saw in the last month, he’s still got a whole lot in him. Twelve points in eight games, and it only took him one night – his return on November 21st when he had four points – for fans to begin wondering when he was going to take over the NHL scoring lead. But now we’re left wondering the same thing we were after Sid got hit by Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman last January. When’s he coming back?

And when he does will he be the same player? And if he isn’t, it’s fans from my generation (oh ya and Penguins fans) that would lose out the most.

The Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly wrote a piece just over a week ago on Tiger Woods after his victory at the Chevron World Challenge – Woods’ first victory in two years.

Kelly explained how Tiger, to Kelly’s generation was more than an athlete.

“At some point in early adulthood, you will choose an athlete or two whom you will view as contemporaries,” Kelly wrote. “He or she is about the same age as you are, coming into the wider world at about the same time you are. While you won’t really have anything in common, you will gauge their progress in life along parallel lines with your own.”

Crosby for my generation is that athlete. And it’s possible that, unlike Woods, he may never live up to his potential and unfortunately there may not be another player with his type of potential for a very long time. Compare him to whatever other NHLer who left the game too early because of injury. Eric Lindros, Pat LaFontaine, Bobby Orr, whoever.

The fact remains that concussions could be something that plague Crosby for the rest of his career. They could, for that matter, cut his career short.

I didn’t see them in their primes, but I at least got to watch a little bit of Gretzky, Lemiuex, Messier and other greats.

Concussions could prevent the next generation from even catching a glimpse of Crosby.
And for my generation of hockey fans concussions could prevent us from crowing our “Great One”, the one we watched in awe for more than a decade. And that’s sad.

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