PRAGUE -- The ugly purple and black bruise covering most of Sidney Crosby's chin is fading. It came courtesy of a high stick against the Czech Republic on Monday and is just now getting to the point that it's not the first thing you notice when chatting with him.
It's also a reminder that these games he's playing in are very real. The world championship might start at funny times in Pittsburgh, like Saturday's 6:15 a.m. ET opening faceoff for Team Canada against France, and is being played half a world away from the NHL city in which Crosby competes, but it's happening. There's risk. There's pressure.
And for Crosby, there's opportunity.
It's a chance to join the Triple Gold Club: the exclusive club of winners of the Stanley Cup, Olympic gold and world championship. Only eight Canadian players have accomplished that feat, and it's an impressive group: Rob Blake, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Eric Staal, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron.
It's also a chance to bring Team Canada its first world championship gold since 2007.
Most of all?
Crosby feels great and just wants to keep playing hockey.
"It's tough losing," Crosby told ESPN.com. "You want to keep playing in the playoffs. I felt good. In previous years, where maybe I could have come to the tail end of the tournament, I hadn't really felt that great. It was kind of risky to come and play hurt and potentially hurt the following season. The fact that I felt good and the fact that we were out, I just wanted to keep playing and hopefully come here to find a way to put a positive note at the end of the year."
It was a decision that came quickly for Crosby.
The morning after the New York Rangers eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs, Team Canada GM Jim Nill looked at his phone and saw a text waiting from Crosby's agent Pat Brisson. It said that Crosby was highly motivated to keep playing and had interest in joining Team Canada.
The text was sent the same night Crosby's NHL season ended.
"I got the text and I called right away and it sped the process up. I gave [Penguins GM] Jimmy Rutherford a call asking for permission and he said he was healthy and everything was good," Nill told ESPN.com. "Everybody was on board and he was ready to go."
When Crosby arrived, it was clear this wasn't a vacation.
"He's in this to win. You can tell. You can see why he's one of the top players in the world. He's engaged, he's committed," Nill said. "He's one of the leaders on the team. There's been a couple times during the game when we needed big plays and he delivered. I think he's having fun."
Crosby has looked great in this tournament. He had three goals in his first four games.
His health and high performance, while great for Team Canada, comes with a painful reminder for the Penguins of this season's missed opportunity. At 27 years old, Crosby is healthy, in his prime and is the best player in the world. There are a finite number of seasons in his career when this will be the case.
With the sting of playoff elimination wearing off, Crosby can look back at the Penguins' disappointing finish and appreciate the effort turned in by his teammates while the team was ravaged with injuries.
Crosby might be healthy but he was in the minority in Pittsburgh, with Olli Maatta, Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis and Christian Ehrhoff all missing against the Rangers in the playoffs because of injuries.
"It's tough," Crosby said. "Every year has had its own story. This year, it came down to the injuries we had. The way guys came in was unbelievable -- Taylor Chorney and Brian Dumoulin, that pair, they came in and played great. It was just a matter of getting that extra goal. We lost every game 2-1; it wasn't like we were totally out of our league. A couple of those overtime games could have gone either way."
It went the wrong way, and that's the challenge Crosby said the Penguins must overcome. They, perhaps more than any team, have faced adversity. Really, more than their share, when you look at Crosby's concussion history, Letang's stroke and Dupuis' blood clot in his lung.
There's no way to prepare for those; they're all legitimate excuses. But in the end, seasons are passing and the world's best player is stuck on one Stanley Cup ring.
"We could have found a way to move on, even with all those injuries," Crosby said. "Staying healthy is one thing; we still have to get over that hump and find a way to extend our season a little more to give us a chance."
It didn't happen, so Crosby is doing his part to return even better next season. Along with adding to his legacy with Triple Gold club membership -- aside from his Stanley Cup win in 2009, he has Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014 -- these games in Prague are a chance to get better. You learn more about teammates, you learn more about opponents -- it's not the playoffs, but it's hockey at a high level.
He's appreciated getting different viewpoints from a coaching staff that features three high-end NHL coaches in Todd McLellan, Bill Peters and Peter DeBoer. He enjoys examining the systematic changes that come with playing on the big ice and participating in the team dynamic of trying to get different personalities of a group to form into one team and do it in a short period of time.
All these different experiences are elements he can bring back to Pittsburgh when training camp opens. That constant effort to improve is what makes Crosby great.
Still, when the games here are over, he checks in on the Stanley Cup playoffs back home. He's caught a little of the series between the Washington Capitals and Rangers. He wakes up and watches all the highlights of all the games.
"Your mind is here," Crosby said. "But at the same time, it's impossible not to wonder what's going on."