The other Crosby

It happened rather suddenly.

"I woke up and just decided I wanted to play, I guess," she said. Before that, it was a childhood not filled with sports, but other activities.

"It was mostly just -- I was a little girl, playing with Barbies, and all that kind of stuff," she added. "I never really showed interest until this one day I kind of just decided I wanted to."

The way she describes her adolescence, like her sudden interest in hockey, is quite ordinary. And yet for Taylor Crosby, growing up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia watching her older brother Sidney age into the greatest hockey player on the planet, it's not difficult for one to see why Taylor decided to lace up the skates and grab a stick.

But as the younger Crosby has matured -- graduating from the pee wee ranks, to other youth programs, to prep hockey, to international competitions, and as of this fall, to the collegiate ranks -- it's been less about Sidney, and more about herself, carving out her own path.

This is the story of Taylor, not the little sister to Sidney, attempting to match his accolades and follow his blueprint stride-for-stride. But Taylor Crosby, the 18-year-old freshman at Boston's Northeastern University, hoping to pen her own identity and make a name for herself.

"I don't want any shortcuts, I don't want people to go easy on me, I want to go in, and work, and show them that I'm a hard worker and can play at this level," said Crosby. "That's not just for other people, but to prove to myself as well that I'm able to play at this level and be the best goalie that I can."

Hockey was not always on Crosby's radar. There were the aforementioned days spent as a spectator, not a participant. In fact, when Crosby finally did get the urge to play, she said it took her a couple of years to convince parents Troy and Trina to let her try it out.

"I just went up to them one day and said I wanted to be a goalie," Crosby said, "but I don't think they wanted me to play because I had been growing up watching my brother. They wanted me to play for me. So it took a couple of years, and then they let me play finally, and I loved it ever since."

That break finally came at age 10, when Crosby was given the greenlight to try out hockey for the first time. At around 12 or 13, Crosby estimated she made the switch to playing with boys. Cole Harbour, and greater Halifax, is no stranger to prominent youth players, seeing them go on to succeed at higher levels. It's a town that also produced Nathan MacKinnon. The local junior team, the Halifax Mooseheads, has housed talents such as Jonathan Drouin, Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Alex Tanguay.

"Honestly, living here, you don't even think about all those people who have come out of here," Crosby said. "You don't realize it. You just think of them back when they were at the rink.

"You look up at the stands and everyone is cheering. It's just kind of like a hometown place. It's not elaborate, it's not fancy. It's just a great place where everyone loves hockey, and they share that enthusiasm."

Eventually, hockey became more serious for Crosby, who said she also played baseball and participated in horseback riding as a child.

"I was playing with some girls who aren't playing anymore, but I could just tell that I wanted to be competitive and I wanted to go further," she said. "Part of it was watching Sidney and watching him succeed and work so hard."

That drive and desire to continue her hockey career led Crosby to elect to leave home for her high school days and attend Shattuck-St. Mary's, a prep school in Minnesota known for producing outstanding hockey talent.

"Obviously I missed being home, and I missed my parents and family, but there's really no other place like [Shattuck]," Crosby said. "From a hockey standpoint, it was great just because I was surrounded by not only girls, but also other athletes and students that wanted to do so well, and worked hard.

"Overall that not only helped me as a player, but as a person."

Older brother Sidney only attended Shattuck for one year. The program's list of male alumni reads something like an all-star team, featuring the likes of Jonathan Toews, Zach Parise, MacKinnon, Derek Stepan, Kyle Okposo, and so the list goes on.

But it's also a hotbed for women's hockey, producing talents like Amanda Kessel, Brianna Decker, and Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux, all of whom were members of the 2014 silver medal USA team in Sochi. In total, Gordie Stafford, head coach of the girls prep team, estimated that among the 34 NCAA Division 1 women's programs, Shattuck currently has at least two dozen active players right now.

And with that kind of pedigree, Stafford also said Crosby had to improve her game when she arrived at the Minnesota campus.

"Actually when she came to us in ninth grade, she had a relatively steep learning curve to make herself into the player that she was at the end," he said. "She's a very athletic kid. It took her a while to grow into her body, and that's specifically difficult for a goalie."

What immediately stood out to Stafford, he said, was that Crosby didn't expect anything to be handed to her because of her brother.

"That's all sort of noise that comes from the outside," Stafford said. "At Shattuck, we're used to having, for lack of better words, high-profile kids there.

Taylor Crosby in uniform at Shattuck-St. Mary's. (Faribault Daily News)

"Taylor is her own person."

By her junior year, Crosby led Shattuck into the national championship game on the strength of a 1-0 shutout against the Buffalo Bisons in the national semifinal, a performance that stands out now to Stafford.

"She's always sort of believed in herself, but she put her belief in herself together with a game that we really needed, and she built on that," Stafford said.

Shattuck would go on to lose in the championship round, and in the months after finishing up her junior season, Crosby received a phone call from a coach whom she'd lost contact with: Dave Flint of Northeastern.

"We talked a little bit, and for one reason or another we hadn't communicated in a while," Flint said. "Then last summer, I checked in with her, and gave her a phone call, and brought her in for an official visit.

"She liked it. I liked her as a kid, really liked her work ethic, and saw a lot of potential in her. And the rest is history."

Crosby wasn't heavily recruited, and said she liked both the athletic and academic fit Northeastern presented. There was also the lure of Flint, who has served on USA Hockey's coaching staff on the women's side since 2005, and has been the team's goaltending advisor since 2008. More recently at Northeastern, Flint coached Florence Schelling, who propelled Switzerland to a bronze medal in the 2014 Olympics, winning both MVP and Best Goalkeeper honors, and is widely considered the best female goalie in the world.

"You hear the names that have gone through the program, and you assume that there's something or someone that has helped them along the way," Crosby said. "Obviously coach Flint is a huge part of that."

Like Stafford, Flint said it was immediately clear in his early interactions with Crosby what her goals were coming into the program, and what she hoped to achieve on her own merit.

"She said, ‘coach, all I want is an opportunity,' and I said, ‘well, you're going to get an opportunity here, that's for sure,'" Flint recalled. "She's a kid who's not looking for any handouts, or any promises, she just said, ‘give me the opportunity, and I'll make the best of it.'"

When that opportunity may come is a bit unclear. Northeastern has an incumbent senior goalie in Chloe Desjardins who Flint pegged as the odds-on starter. But Crosby seemed less focused on becoming the immediate number one versus simply pitching in.

"Coach Flint, he's a great coach, he knows whether you're the senior or a freshman, he's going to play the goalie that is playing the best," she said. "I felt like I was going to have an opportunity to work hard and maybe play, or to push the senior goalie to play better."

Historic Matthews Arena is home to the Northeastern University hockey program. (Wikipedia)

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Crosby's earliest hockey memories aren't of lugging around a milk carton over a frozen pond learning how to skate, but watching her older brother play against competition a few years older than him -- and thus, bigger than him.

"I hated when people would hit him because he was so much smaller," Taylor said. "When we were growing up, I was very protective of him; he was my older brother, no one messes with him-they have to mess with me kind of thing.

"I guess I was in the stands, and I was along the boards, and I would yell at the other players.

"I was probably four or five, yelling at them, telling them to stop hitting him."

But being exposed to hockey at such a young age, even as an observer, has helped Crosby to understand its intricacies.

"When you're three years old, you're not really listening, but in a way I am, because I learned how to act, or how to dress," she said. "Just little things like that I grew up around, and not that many people have the same experience.

"I was kind of lucky I got to see a really good person grow up, and how he carried himself."

As much as their lives will always be intertwined, Crosby is doing her best to relinquish the role of disciple and graduate to a new rank. In his own regard, Sidney is doing his own part to provide his younger sister with that space.

In an attempt to be reached for interview for this story, Penguins PR said Sidney was not fulfilling requests at the time, and added "[Sidney] is probably Taylor's biggest fan, but allows her to be herself and not take too much attention from her - therefore, it's really rare that he does interviews about her."

The hockey memories they share are quite few and far between. Taylor recalled a brief session in Cole Harbour when Sidney took shots on her. "I stopped him a few times; it was pretty fun."

Stafford recalled a game at Shattuck during the 2012-13 NHL lockout that Sidney attended with both Troy and Trina.

"That was a moment for her because he hadn't seen her play in years," Stafford said. "Again, take away the notoriety of her brother, and it was just a wonderful family."

The pair rarely talks about hockey, according to Taylor. Most conversations are about school, or social life, or just joking around.

"He's more of a father I guess; he's a bit older than I am," she said. "He's an older, protective brother, so more of a dad, but we're really close. We're close, but we both live very hectic lives."

Sidney, Taylor and their parents, Troy and Trina, pose for a photo at the 2011 Winter Classic in Pittsburgh. (Dave Sandford / NHLI / Getty Images)

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The options for adult female hockey players are scant compared to those for males. Competitions like the Olympics offer them opportunities to continue to play, and professional women's hockey is limited to a small five-team league, the CWHL.

In some ways, Crosby is like the millions of other college freshmen entering their first year: wide-eyed, with the future and the abstract concept of a job in the back of their heads.

"I've probably gone around every single job there is and thought that I would like to do it, and gone back to it five times now," she said. "It's a huge decision, and I didn't think it was going to be this hard for me."

Growing up, Crosby said she told everyone she was going to be a veterinarian, a path she decided wasn't right for her toward the end of her time at Shattuck. Northeastern offers a five-year program that requires students to complete two co-op -- extended six month internships that take the place of classes for a semester -- meaning Crosby will have plenty of time to decide on whatever best suits her professionally.

"I've looked at different courses at Northeastern and thought, ‘oh wow, that sounds really interesting,' but I have no idea," she said. "I hope that whatever I decide to do I love it and I'm happy."

Crosby said she's more focused on immediate goals: making the transition to college life and Boston (Crosby insists she won't become a Bruins fan), staying on top of her schoolwork, and becoming a better hockey player.

And at the top of that to-do list is authoring the story of Taylor Crosby, whatever that may be.

"She's very, very proud of her brother, and she's very very proud of her family, but she also has a strong desire to create her own destiny," said Stafford, "and that's kind of what's really cool about her."