2005 Team Canada Sidney Crosby Jersey

Today marks the 22nd birthday of the Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

Crosby began playing hockey at the age of two and learned to skate a year later like many little boys. From there, things stopped being "usual". He gave his first newspaper interview at age seven and at fourteen he was featured during Hockey Day in Canada on the CBC the year he scored 193 points for his AAA Midget team in 74 games.

He played in the United States in 2002-03 for Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota, leading them to the U. S. National Championship with 162 points during 57 games. He was also the only player under 18 invited to join Canada's Junior National Team (generally a roster made up of 18 and 19 year olds) in 2003 at just 16 years of age, and became the youngest player to ever score a goal in the World Juniors. Only Jay Bouwmeester, Jason Spezza, Eric Lindros and Wayne Gretzky have played in the World Juniors at age 16 prior to Crosby.

Drafted first overall by the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), Crosby scored eight points in his first exhibition game and was named Player of the Week for the first two weeks of the season, plus an additional four times during the remainder of the season. He would go on to be named Player of the Month three times leading to being capturing the Player of the Year Award, being named Top Rookie and winning the league scoring title with 54 goals and 81 assists for 135 points in just 59 games.

The following season Oceanic would set a record for 28 games without a loss, making it as far as the Memorial Cup Finals and Crosby would lead the league in scoring again with 66 goals, 102 assists for a total of 168 points. It would be the sixth consecutive season in four different leagues that Crosby would be the league leader in scoring.

Prior to being drafted by the Penguins, Crosby would play in two World Junior Championships, winning silver in 2004 in Helsinki, Finland and capturing gold in 2005 in Grand Forks, North Dakota against a Russian team that included both Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.

Six months later he would be once again drafted first overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the draft lottery to determine the order of selection following the lockout year.

Today's featured jersey is a  2005 Team Canada Sidney Crosby jersey as worn in the 2005 World Junior Championships in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This is not only the same style that Canada wore during the championship final when Team Canada defeated Russia to capture the gold, but also the Crosby jersey that was stolen by an Air Canada baggage handler in Montreal after the tournament, which eventually ended up in a mailbox and was recovered.

This jersey also features the IIHF logo on the lower back as worn by all players in the World Juniors that year.

Here's a fourteen year old Crosby profiled in this TV news feature followed by another feature on his time with Rimouski Oceanic before being drafted by the Penguins.

Bonus Jerseys: In honor of the late film director John Hughes, whose many popular movies included the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, we here at Third String Goalie pay tribute to him with a pair of bonus jerseys.

First is a CCM Chicago Blackhawks Clark Griswold jersey from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as worn by Chevy Chase.

Next up is a Gordie Howe Detroit Red Wings jersey as worn by Bueller's neurotic sidekick Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.