Call them souvenirs lost.

When Sidney Crosby scored for Canada against the United States in overtime of the Olympic hockey final Sunday in Vancouver, he swooped behind the net, reached for his mouth guard, then threw that, his gloves and his stick to the heavens.

"When they cleared the ice, I never got my stick or gloves," Mr. Crosby said Tuesday after rejoining his Penguins teammates. "Of all the things, I got my mouth guard back. I don't know where [the other equipment] is. It's one of those things that I don't know how it got away or where it ended up. If I get it back one day, great. If not, someone's got it somewhere."

Other than the molded plastic mouth guard, Mr. Crosby didn't exactly come back empty-handed.

There was that gold medal, the most recent symbol of his latest larger-than-life accomplishment.

Mr. Crosby, who became the youngest NHL captain to lift the Stanley Cup last summer, brought his gold medal to Mellon Arena Tuesday morning to show the Penguins as they gathered for their morning skate.

Asked what could possibly be next after winning a Cup and a gold before his 23rd birthday, Mr. Crosby thought for a second, shrugged slightly and said softly, "Another one."

Whether he will aim for another gold medal in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, is in question -- not because he has any hesitation in playing for Team Canada again, but because the NHL has not committed to continued cooperation with the Olympics.

Mr. Crosby wouldn't go as far as some of the Russian NHL players in vowing to participate in 2014, even if that means defying the league or his pro team.

"I'd love to be there," he said. "You look at the experience I had, everybody had. It was an amazing event. It was great for hockey. The fact that it was Canada-U.S. was awesome. It was watched everywhere. I think all hockey fans in general enjoyed it.

"I can't see them not going. I really don't know what's going to happen, but, after what we experienced and I think what the fans experienced, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't go."

Success seems to follow Mr. Crosby, but he's not sure that's how he wants people to view him. Nevertheless, he's not complaining about the results.

"You want to be a winner, for sure," he said. "I think there are other things that define people besides championships. But, as a player, that's what you play for. That's what you work toward. You put everything you can into working hard so you can have those opportunities."

The next opportunity would be to help the Penguins attempt to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. That march began quickly on the heels of the Olympics, with a home game Tuesday night against Buffalo.

That means Mr. Crosby and other NHL players who had long runs in the Olympics have little time to put that tournament into perspective.

"The whole experience was great," said Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, who was on the losing end of that 3-2 game Sunday and earned a silver medal. "Obviously, not the outcome we wanted. We get going here in Pittsburgh right away, so it probably won't happen until after the season when the dust settles that I think about it."

They got a rousing reminder when the Penguins honored the Olympians from both teams before the game last night. For the Penguins, that included Mr. Crosby, Mr. Orpik, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was the third-string goaltender for Canada, and Russia's Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar, along with Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller (U.S.), coach Lindy Ruff (Canadian assistant), Henrik Tallinder (Sweden), Toni Lydman (Finland, bronze medal), Andrej Sekera (Slovakia) and Jochen Hecht (Germany).

The only smudge was a smattering of boos mixed with cheers when a clip of Mr. Crosby scoring to beat the U.S. was shown on the video board.

Mr. Miller, the Olympic tournament MVP, got one of the loudest ovations for a visiting player you would ever hear, and, at the end of the introductions, there was a short chant of "USA, USA" from the crowd.

"That would be a first," Mr. Miller said earlier in the day when asked about the possibility of a warm reception. "I usually hear my name in other ways.

"It is nice that the Olympics can help bring that out in the crowds here in the NHL because, especially out on the East Coast, you hear [taunting] a lot, and up in Canada, they like to give you a hard time. It would be nice to have a crowd appreciate your effort when you're on the road.

"But I think that's what's good about hockey fans-- they enjoy a good hockey game. It's not just about one team all the time. It's about the sport. It's nice that the U.S. really tuned in for it."

Mr. Ruff took more notice of what the quality of play in the Olympics said about the NHL, which supplied all the players for the gold-medal game.

"The two-week experience -- the hockey that was played, how great the games were, how exciting it turned out, how tight the last game was -- it just tells what a tight league we have," he said. "You look at the U.S.-Canada matchup, there's not lot of difference there."

Mr. Ruff was one of the seemingly few people in North America who didn't watch the puck cross the goal line in overtime Sunday.

"I didn't see the goal live," he said. "I was getting ready to get two [defensemen] on the ice. It just all of a sudden was in. When I saw a pair of gloves go up, I knew he had scored, but I didn't really see the goal."

Maybe one day, Mr. Crosby will get those gloves back.

on the web

For video from Sidney Crosby's news conference yesterday, visit post-gazette.com

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