This piece by Cam Cole is a few days old, as it ran in the National Post on the weekend, but it's still worth a read.

Some of it gets at the human side of Sidney Crosby and the Penguins other young stars, something that's often difficult to do given all of the hullabaloo around this team wherever they travel. Cole managed to hang around Dallas an extra day or two and get a little bit more in-depth.

Here's Crosby:

"If you want to be your best, you can't sit still and look at what you've done. I think I'm successful because I've worked hard, and I still believe that the moment I stop working hard, it's all going to go away."

Case in point: an hour after Wednesday's all-star game, Crosby was asking a Penguins staffer to arrange ice time in Dallas the following day for himself, Evgeni Malkin and YoungStars game participants Jordan Staal and Ryan Whitney. The Stars said the four could use their practice facility ... at 10 a.m. Crosby rousted the other three at 8 in the morning, and off they went to suburbia.

"What a nerd," laughed a former NHLer, when apprised of the story.

Crosby just shrugged.

You often hear about the "genius" when it comes to a player like Crosby, but we've rarely heard about the dedication part of what goes into being an elite player at such a young age. And maybe that's selling Crosby short, chalking everything he's accomplished up to only natural talent when he's spent his entire life working to be the best.

It makes you wonder, how much of what he's accomplished this season is the result of outworking his opposition? How good would Crosby be without that fire that all the greats have?

• Here's a good shot of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin doing some work with Habitat for Humanity during the all-star break