Crosby scored 2 goals, including game-winner, in memorable Montreal debut

MONTREAL -- Sidney Crosby will skate onto Bell Centre ice Monday for his 23rd regular-season game against the Montreal Canadiens in the first edition of "Prime Monday Night Hockey" (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS, PRIME, SN-PIT).

The Pittsburgh Penguins captain needs one point to become the 10th player in NHL history to reach the 1,600-point plateau; it would be his 25th point at Bell Centre, Crosby with nine goals and 15 assists to date.

(In five Stanley Cup Playoff games in Montreal, Crosby has one goal and three assists.)

Point No. 1,600 would be a remarkable achievement to be sure, and it might even compare with his first game in the Montreal arena that on Jan. 3, 2006 was known as Molson Centre.

Crosby's maiden game against the Canadiens in Montreal was his second time facing the historic franchise. The first was Nov. 10, 2005 in Pittsburgh, the rookie scoring the sixth goal of his career on one of his four shots at the Igloo, then winning the 3-2 game by scoring the only goal in the shootout.

Now, not quite two months later, Crosby was in Montreal, about to play the club he'd grown up cheering, the team that in 1984 had drafted but never played his father, Troy, selecting the goalie in the 12th and final round (No. 242).

(The Canadiens would do fine with Patrick Roy, the other goalie they drafted that year, in the third round with the No. 51 selection.)

The national anthems had been sung and Bell Centre was loudly abuzz with anticipation of seeing Crosby, the peach-fuzzed, otherworldly gifted player who was just five months past his 18th birthday.

The Penguins were last in the Eastern Conference at 10-19-9. The Canadiens, having played one more game, were 13 points up on their visitor, but at 18-13-6 were fourth in the Northeast Division behind the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs. Montreal was 11-5-2 on home ice; Pittsburgh arrived at 4-10-4 on the road.

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu cruised near center ice across from Crosby for the start of the game, forward Alex Kovalev nearby, the puck in veteran referee Don Koharski's hand.

Sidney Crosby in his NHL Draft portrait, taken July 30, 2005 in Ottawa. He would make his NHL debut a few months later.

But then Koharski briefly postponed the opening face-off, leaning in to the Penguins phenom for a quick word.

Standing in the penalty box, its door open, was then-Canadiens photographer Bob Fisher, his lens focused on two Nova Scotians: the referee, a native of Dartmouth, and Crosby, of Cole Harbour.

"I said to Sid, 'Come here. See that guy over there in the penalty box with the camera? He wants to take a picture of the two legends from Nova Scotia,'" Koharski said in a March 2009 talk, on the eve of hanging up his whistle after 32 NHL seasons.

The referee burst into laughter at Crosby's reply.

"Sid just looked at me and said, 'Yeah? Well, where's the other one?'"

Crosby gave a goofy grin to Fisher, Koharski still talking to him, and the photo, which would find its way onto a wall in the referee's Florida home, was snapped.

Crosby was born an adult, judging by that kind of quick-thinking quip from a teenager about to skate on arguably the grandest stage in his sport.

And then, in a shower of camera flashes, he lost his first Bell Centre face-off cleanly to Koivu.

It was one of 11 draws Crosby would lose that night, his three wins giving him a success rate of just 21.0 percent. He also took a penalty, a minor for hooking.

But look fully across his impressive stat line: two goals scored on five shots, two more shots that missed, 18:59 of ice time, three takeaways and no giveaways in the Penguins' 6-4 victory.

Crosby scored on his first shot in Montreal, using winger Ziggy Palffy as a decoy on a 2-on-1 break before snapping a 25-footer past Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore at 4:33 of the first period.

It was hard to tell the goal had been scored by a visiting player, the building erupting and a camera pan showing fans grinning no matter the jersey they wore.

Crosby's second came 1:58 into the third period to break a 4-4 tie, sweeping the tight rebound of a Matt Murley shot behind Theodore.

Just as Crosby was burying the shot, late Canadiens icon Jean Beliveau was being interviewed on the FSN Pittsburgh telecast, from his usual seat three rows behind the Montreal bench.

"Usually a youngster, if they're 18 or 19 years old, it takes a year or two before you get adjusted to the speed of the game," Beliveau said as the Penguins began a rush up the ice.

"But him, he has everything. Natural talent, great ability, he looks physically strong" -- Crosby scored in Beliveau's mid-sentence -- "and I'm always happy when there's a youngster coming up like that. It's good for the game."

It seems that Beliveau, a 10-time Stanley Cup winner with the Canadiens, was a good judge of talent.

Top photo: Sidney Crosby looks to a photographer at the request of referee Don Koharski before the opening face-off of Crosby's first NHL game in Montreal, a 6-4 Penguins win on Jan. 3, 2006.