Sidney Crosby captains the Pittsburgh Penguins. He makes the plays. He
scores the goals. He sells the tickets. He fills the arena.

Plus, the 21-year-old NHL superstar is delivering the mail for the
organization. He went out Wednesday to personally hand tickets to
three season ticketholders, including David Disney, who has had
tickets since the team's inception. At Disney's house, Crosby got to
see a framed program from the first home game in Penguins' history —
Oct. 11, 1967, vs. the Montreal Canadiens, 20 years before Crosby was
born.

"For a guy like Sid to reach out personally to our season
ticketholders in this way says a lot about him, and what he means to
our team and our community," Penguins President David Morehouse said.
"It's one of the many reasons he is a perfect fit for Pittsburgh."

Nine other Penguins, including Marc-Andre Fleury and Brooks Orpik,
delivered tickets, along with coach Michel Therrien. But Crosby's
presence among the group would suggest he's still as gung-ho about his
importance to the game as he was when he arrived in the league three
years as the most talked-about rookie since Mario Lemieux.

Only three months removed from leading the Penguins to within two wins
of the Stanley Cup, Crosby comes back, maybe more confident, and
certainly with a more experienced team to lead.

The trend is to compare last season's Penguins to the 1980s Edmonton
Oilers, who were swept by the veteran New York Islanders in the 1983
Stanley Cup Finals. The Oilers learned from that setback and went on
to win four titles in five seasons.

"To an extent I can see the comparison to the (1982-83) Oilers because
we were a young team playing a veteran Detroit team," Crosby said.
"But we took them to six games, and it wasn't a question of us not
paying a price. We left it out there. We didn't win, but we were
awfully close and we all know what it takes to get there."

In reviewing how the Finals played out, Crosby regrets only the first
two games, which were won by Detroit.

"We can learn from them because they are a great team, but I don't
think we need to change too much with regard to what we did," Crosby
said. "Line against line, we were fine, and they have great defense
and goaltending, and our defense played great and our goalie played
well, too. It came down to details. Maybe that's where experience
helped them because they didn't waste those first two games."

It won't exactly be the same Penguins team that Crosby leads this
season. His playoff right wing, Marian Hossa, is on the Red Wings and
Evgeni Malkin's top scoring winger, Ryan Malone, jumped to the Tampa
Bay Lightning. They have been replaced by Miroslav Satan and Ruslan
Fedotenko.

Just as was the case at the start of last season, the Penguins don't
seem to have enough scoring wingers to accommodate their two premium
centers.

"I don't think that's a problem," Crosby said. "It's up to (Malkin)
and I to make the guys around us better, but I don't see that being an
issue because we have a lot of guys who can score."

While the offense took some offseason hits, the Penguins' defense, the
most surprising aspect of their game last season, remained intact. The
team was able to keep Orpik, even though it seemed like he might be
able to earn more elsewhere.

"You can't win consistently without those guys," Crosby said. "Our D
were very strong. They weren't the flashiest group back there, but
they were really good at managing the puck, not making big mistakes
that can hurt you."

Crosby's plan this season is not to think about the arduous journey
the team endured in reaching the Finals.

"If you do that, you will be looking up a mountain," said Crosby, who
was limited to 53 regular-season games last season because of a high
ankle sprain. "One thing we did last year is we never got caught
looking too far ahead. We didn't think, 'What happens if we lose this
guy or we don't get this many points over the next 10 games?' A lot
can happen over the course of the season, and that's why you have to
keep everything in perspective."

Crosby has a reputation for being mature beyond his years, but he's
still planning to start the season, living with Lemieux, as he had in
his first three NHL seasons.

"I have been looking for a house since year," Crosby said. "I can't
find one. I want to be in a certain area (Sewickley, Pa.), and I'm
being a little picky because I don't want to buy a house and then get
another one in a year. I want to buy a house and be in it for a while."

That's a statement the Penguins are happy to hear, considering how
much Crosby does for the organization.