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Lead, transitive verb:  (1): to direct the operations, activity, or performance of <lead an orchestra> (2): to have charge of <lead a campaign> (3): to suggest to (a witness) the answer desired by asking leading questions b (1): to go at the head of <lead a parade> (2): to be first in or among <lead the league> (3): to have a margin over <led his opponent>.

Sidney Crosby — captain, prodigy, wunderkind, man-crush of several thousand otherwise heterosexual Pittsburghians — does not lead the Pittsburgh Penguins. If he did, they wouldn’t be in the Stanley Cup final. In fact, it would be unfair to criticize him for not leading, despite the ‘C’ on his sweater. So can we all stop pretending this series is some sort of referendum on his ability to “lead”? Because we won’t know the answer to that question for another ten years or so.

Crosby is 21, he’s the captain of his team and his team is in the Cup final and they’re in trouble. So the natural cliche is to ask if the young star can “lead” them from the depths of despair and to the promised land. Yeah, sure … an easy article to fill inches on an off-day, but…

Leadership doesn’t work like that. The two definitions above, in bold, are probably the ones that best apply how we use the verb in the cliche-ridden language of sports … but neither of them are something I would be comfortable applying to a extremely talented 21-year-old kid.

I know, because I’m Canadian, that to disparage a Canadian captain’s leadership ability on the ice is to emasculate him in the eyes of our collective tribe. Our leadership, after all, is what separates our boys from the Russians and Swedes, at least in the eyes of Don Cherry.

But I don’t care whether you’re a commie, a viking or a hoser from Kingston … you ain’t leading shit at 21 years old.

You can fit right into the fabric of the team. You can get along with everyone in the dressing room. You can use your otherworldly talent to take over games and tally impressive statistics. But you’re not leading by the actual definition of the word and the concept.

I mention this because Crosby is nominated for the Mark Messier leadership award:

Boston’s Zdeno Chara, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla are the three finalists for the 2008-09 Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award presented by Bridgestone, the National Hockey League announced today.

Mark Messier solicits suggestions from club and League personnel and NHL fans in compiling a list of potential candidates. However, the selection of the three finalists and the ultimate winner is Messier’s alone.

And good for him. Mark Messier needs to perpetuate the image that he was actually a wonderful leader instead of a great hockey player who’s teams missed the playoffs more than they made them. So he gives out an award every year. I can dig it — though I would point out that a real leader *cough*Yzerman*cough* would never stoop to such shameless self-doctoring of his Real Leader Of Men image.

Anyway, examine those three nominees. Think hard about them. This is an exercise. I want you to picture them each, in their respective dressing rooms in between periods with their team down two goals; then, I want you to picture them each working with coache and teammates on a set play in a hasty huddle at the bench with 30 seconds left and the team down one; then I want you to picture them facing the media after an ugly loss, explaining why it happened and how the team can improve; and finally, I want you to picture them speaking to their teammates, one-on-one, about each player’s role on the team and how he can better handle the responsibilities of that position.

I’m not asking you to picture them all Mark-Messier-esque — with that carefully contrived fire in his eyes and that store-bought hateful stare drilling a hole through an opponent in the faceoff circle. That’s not leadership anyway,that’s competitiveness, and nobody would deny that Sidney Crosby has tonnes of that.

I’m asking you to picture the nominees performing the quiet, day-to-day responsibilities of someone who, in the words of those definitions above, “directs the operations, activity or performance of” and “has charge of” the hockey team.

That’s true leadership. It’s why good coaches are so very valuable and why the best captains aren’t the loudest or even the most outspoken, but are without fail the most determined, the most dedicated and the best communicators in the dressing room. They’re also often the ones who have the bright, shiny rings.

And I’m not intending for this post to be a slight on Sidney Crosby’s hockey skill, which is off-the-charts phenomenal. Nor is it intended to portray him as the petulant crybaby that some fans enjoy depicting. Though he should stop talking to the refs so much, if only so that they’ll take him more seriously when he does.

I like Sidney Crosby. I do. I’m just saying that, a 21-year-old in is position — no matter how talented and nice and fake-plastic-athlete he may be — is not the guy who will lead a hockey team to victory.

He might “lead” a victorious team in scoring. He might “lead” the parade if they somehow win. But the quiet, competent, level-headed leadership that authors true success in sports and everything else…. Dude. He’s 21. He’s not leading ill Guerin and Sergei Gonchar anywhere. So stop talking about it.