Here in North America, I think I can say with relative ease that Sidney Crosby means more to his sport than any other athlete does. The only corollary I can even compare to Crosby’s magnitude is LeBron James.

When Tom Brady went down for the season in 2008, the engine that is the NFL ran just as smoothly as it ever did. The same can be said for Peyton Manning’s absence this year. Baseball has too many teams with too many players for one player’s presence to be felt on a national scale. Too few care about the MLS or the WNBA for any player to be noticed, let alone missed. All of those leagues lack a tour de force on par with Crosby. In large team games, I doubt that many fans go out of their way to get tickets to games to see one star player the way people clamor to see Crosby.

Sidney Crosby, and to a lesser extent, LeBron James, do have that fan base. Both are particularly polarizing players – you either loathe them for their whining and constant beat-downs of your favorite teams, or love them for their transcendent talents. People go out of their way to see them. If Sidney Crosby comes to Boston to play the Bruins, NESN gets killer ratings and the ticket prices on the secondary market skyrocket. Right now, the cheapest ticket on Stubhub for Crosby’s first game in Boston this season goes for $100, second only to this Friday’s nationally televised game against the Red Wings. The same can be said about LeBron, he’s always the reason why his team is on TV, or why the arena he’s visiting is sold out.

The only thing that elevates Crosby over LeBron at this point is that we have felt the void of his absence. The NHL just felt off without Sid the Kid. At the national level, the NHL is fundamentally driven by the Original Six, plus Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. With Crosby out of action since January 2011, the NHL was without its best and most marketable star. The games went on, but the story of Crosby and his battle with post-concussion syndrome was covered just as much as the action on the ice.

ESPN, who I’m convinced doesn’t know what hockey is, actually sent two reporters to Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center for Crosby’s first game back on Monday. 250 Press credentials were issued, on par with a Stanley Cup Playoff game. What they all witnessed was a return to the old world order – two goals, two assists. It’s Crosby’s world and we’re all just paying rent. And somehow, I think hockey fans like that better than the alternative.

Mark Bruso can be reached for comment at [email protected]