CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Sidney Crosby’s early days in the NHL, when every Pittsburgh Penguins training camp felt like a proving ground, are never far from his mind, particularly this time of year.

The early days have been gone for a while now. Yet there the Penguins’ captain was Thursday, a month removed from his 38th birthday and with a not insignificant number of flecks of gray sprinkled in his hair, still finding a way to smile while bending over his stick following a series of laps at the end of the first practice of his 21st season.

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