Sid the Kid is coming to town

The heck with Santa, he shows up every year. It's Sid the Kid who is finally coming to town.
That's what ravenous hockey fans are saying in Western Canada this week as the Pittsburgh Penguins visit Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver over a four-day stretch starting Wednesday night in northern Alberta. It's the first trip to each city in Sidney Crosby's NHL career.
The weather is positively frigid, but this will be one hot ticket.
"Everyone wants to see this kid," Flames general manager Darryl Sutter said. "They want to see the stars. It's the same when (Alexander) Ovechkin came in last year." It's taken nearly one-third of the way into Crosby's third NHL season to finally complete the 30-city circuit. These are the final three stops the 20-year-old native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia has to make to give everyone around the league an opportunity to witness him live.
"It's always nice to go to a new place, it's nice to play someone new," Crosby said by phone. "It feels like your first year again."
Crosby will be in demand this week. Canada's TSN is airing Wednesday's game from Edmonton, Saturday's contest in Vancouver is the second half of Hockey Night in Canada and Rogers Sportsnet is following the tour day-by-day. It might remind him a bit of his first day of training camp three years ago when 11 Canadian media outlets were on hand to record his every move.
"I'd never complain about the attention – ever," said Crosby, already 186 games into a superstar's career. "I feel very fortunate to be doing what I love to do. Not everyone gets that chance every day.
"This is just part of it, and it comes down to managing my time to make sure I concentrate on my passion, which is the hockey."
Surprisingly, despite his high profile status as a junior star and national team member, Crosby had not appeared in any of these three buildings before reaching the NHL.