PITTSBURGH - Finally, after three hectic months filled with the NHL lottery and draft, his selection by Pittsburgh, his move into Mario Lemieux's house, his first training camp, his first exhibition game, the hockey begins for real for Sidney Crosby tonight.

All that he's-the-next-Gretzky-and-or-Lemieux hype that began in his native Nova Scotia, the once-in-a-generation anticipation that has preceded the person who is supposed to be a once-in-a-generation player, doesn't matter at all.

What counts now, and nothing else, is whether he can play the game at the same level he has until now in amateur and junior hockey, a standard only few of the game's greats reached before him.

Can he put the puck past Devils goalie Martin Brodeur in his first NHL game? Can he set up Mark Recchi or John LeClair for a goal or two Friday night in Carolina? Can he give his new fans something to remember in his first home game Saturday? Can he handle the rigors, pressures, setbacks, road trips, stress and intense media scrutiny of an 82-game schedule, then do it again next year and the year after and the year after?

And can he be what the NHL so desperately needs more than ever as it emerges from its 16-month hibernation with all 30 teams playing today - namely, a signature star? A LeBron James-type player known not only by rink rats and fantasy team owners but the public en masse?

Lemieux, perhaps the last player to go through a buildup as intense as Crosby's, thinks he knows the answer.

"Maybe he just turned 18, but look how he played in our last (preseason) game," Lemieux said Tuesday. "He was one of the best players on the ice, making plays, with his skating and his strength, handling the puck. Give this kid a couple of years, he's going to do some damage."

Lemieux didn't need nearly that long to make his impression on the NHL. In his first game on Oct. 11, 1984, in Boston, he scored on the first shot of his first shift of his first game.

Crosby knows the story, but said the worst thing he could do would be to try to duplicate No. 66's feat.

"If it comes, it comes, but, if it doesn't, I'm not going to be rattled for the rest of the game," he said.

Rattled wasn't a word used to describe Crosby's first NHL camp. He has impressed his much older teammates - Lemieux, who coincidentally turns 40 today, is more than twice his age - with his poise, polish, work ethic and composure.

Nor that he can't act like a teenager occasionally.

A group of puzzled teammates were looking recently at Crosby's gloves atop his locker stall. They knew the gloves were his, but the name inscribed on them - "Darryl" - made no sense.

Crosby, looking a bit sheepish when offering the explanation, said they came from his junior hockey nickname - as in Darryl Sittler, the only NHL player to score 10 points in a game. Crosby had eight points in his first junior hockey exhibition game.

"Nicknames come in funny ways like that," said Crosby, whose scoring feats during his two seasons in juniors were eclipsed only by Lemieux and Gretzky.

Goals and assists don't come easily in the NHL, though, even with rules changes meant to accelerate the previous glacier-like goal-scoring pace. And that will be Brodeur in net tonight, not another kid Crosby's age who might well never play at a level above juniors.

"That's fine," Crosby said. "That's the fun part about playing in the NHL: I grew up watching these guys and now I'm going to be playing against them, and that's special. But I can't change anything. You still have to shoot the same places, do the same things you did before."