Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

This season Sidney Crosby has shifted his focus from passer to goal scorer.

EDMONTON — As much as we’re looking forward to Saturday night at GM Place — perhaps the best team in Canada against the Stanley Cup champions — it is a different trip to Vancouver by Sid Crosby that has all the meaning this winter.

I should come clean. I’ve written for six years that Jarome Iginla was my choice for captain in Vancouver. Still feel that way, even though they gave the "C" to Scott Niedermayer.

But as good as both Niedermayer and Iginla are, for the majority of Canadians, Sid Crosby has become "Our Player."

And he will be the player Canadians will rally around in Vancouver this February, whether they pin the "C" on him or not. Because he is already the one Canadian player above all others who draws us to the rink.

In Edmonton Thursday night, a building that hasn’t been legitimately full on very many night over the past two months was groaning with people who came out for one reason:

To see No. 87.

"He's what our business needs," said Edmonton coach Pat Quinn. "Going back, we've had eras where people have stepped forward and been the face of our game. And they've been terrific. You can go back to guys on the old Leafs, then you got Gordie (Howe) and (Bobby) Hull then you get Orr and Gretzky and Lemieux. This kid is the face of our game – and he's a good face."

In Calgary on Wednesday a beauty showed up in the stands dressed as a bride, with a sign that read: "Marry Me Sidney." Then he walked right down the aisle between Jay Bouwmeester and Mark Giordano to score the game’s first goal.

It was a take charge moment that we’re seeing more and more from him this season, as Crosby shifts his focus from being the passer to scoring goals.

That goal was his 30th — and Pittsburgh has now played 49 games. Crosby has never scored more than 39 goals in the NHL, but as Ovechkin threatens to pass him by on the marquee with a passel of highlight reel goals each season, Crosby looks like he has decided to fight back.

"I'm trying to shoot the puck more. I'm trying to get more of a shooting mentality out there," he said Thursday morning, as the topic turned to the possibility of a 50-goal season. "It's not something I'm thinking about a whole lot. It's a long ways away, and we all know there's ups and downs in a season. When you're scoring it's great, but there's times when they don't go in as easy so you try and ride it as long as you can. I just won't look too far away."

He has lost a Stanley Cup final, and sipped from the Cup the next year. He has played in a World Cup, World juniors, will be an Olympic stalwart as long as the NHL keeps sending their players to the five-ring circus.

But Crosby has never been considered a serious candidate for the Rocket Richard Trophy, as long as guys like the Iginla and Ovechkin have been around.

Gretzky went at it the other way, going from a goal scorer to more of a passing threat as the seasons passed. If there is one great player willing to work at changing his game though, we know for sure that Crosby is able.

"It's not all just genes. (It’s) hours put in, and work and dedication to learning your craft. There's a young man who's done it," Quinn said. "Why did Gretzky become so good? It wasn't just genes. They work. They develop. They challenge themselves all the time. It doesn't surprise me that he'd go back to the drawing board and push himself to be whatever he wants to be."

Right now, as the Penguins struggled past a super-charged Edmonton Oilers club Thursday night, Crosby is just working on a third straight Cup run for the Pens. It’s a long road, and between the Olympics and eight playoff rounds over the past two seasons, Crosby is not missing many stops along the way.

"It's really tough. You see every teams best every night," he said. "They're measuring themselves against you – and there's a lot of great teams in this league. There's not a lot of difference between the teams. The fact we won doesn't make us way better. We played well. We earned it. But there's a lot of good hockey teams."

And a few more waiting for him in Vancouver come February.