He has skated endlessly with Penguins teammates in the Pittsburgh area, gone to Scottsdale, Ariz., for some scrimmages, tried his hand at collective-bargaining negotiations and fended off numerous questions about whether he'll head to Europe.

Friday, he tried something really different: Playing goaltender in a ball hockey league at Dek Star, about 10 minutes from downtown.

As he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday:

"My buddy plays in the league there. I talked to him about playing. I played a lot of goalie in street hockey growing up and stuff. Just asked if he needed a goalie. He said sure and I came out. It was cool."

The goalie mask gave Crosby some anonymity. He said he wasn't recognized until he talked to a referee late in the game.

Chris Evans, general manager for Dek Star, told the Post-Gazette:

"My referee walked over just to kind of say, 'Hey, you're not the normal goalie. It's about time they get a goalie.' Instead, he looked at him and he was like, 'Holy (cow) that's Sidney Crosby.'

"The other team played against him for an hour and had no idea. They didn't even know until I told them until after he left."

Of course, when playing goalie, you have to worry about a different type of head shot. But Crosby says he wasn't overly concerned because the sport uses a ball and he was wearing a mask.

So how does the NHL's best forward fare at goalie? A shutout, naturally.

"I didn't have one shot," Crosby told the newspaper. "My team was really good defensively."