Penguins share throwback photo of Crosby at 2008 Global Series

Last time Sidney Crosby played in the NHL Global Series in Sweden, "The Dark Knight" was burning up the box office.

The year was 2008. The No. 1 song was "Low" by FloRida and T-Pain. "Iron Man" was about to launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Instagram, Pintrest, WhatsApp, Snapchat and TikTok didn't even exist yet.

The team shared a photo of Crosby from the 2008 event and this year's game and the changes are subtle but the similarities -- namely Crosby being one of the NHL's elite players -- are exact.

Crosby was 21 years old last time he played the NHL Global Series. At the time he had 99 career goals, and an astonishing 294 points in 213 NHL games.

Compare that with his now-637 NHL goals and 1,707 points in 1,370 games today.

Crosby and teammates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang all played in the 2008 series where they split a two game set against the Ottawa Senators. Their goalie was the recently retired Marc-Andre Fleury. Crosby had one point in the series, an assist on a goal by then defenseman Alex Goligoski, who is now a player development coach for the Minnesota Wild. TNT's Paul Bissonnette was on the Penguins roster in 2008 and he has been a hockey broadcaster since 2017.

The NHL's Swedish account shared a video showing the passage of time. The caption read "Same arena. Same captain. Same person. Only 1 Sidney Crosby."

On Sunday, Crosby scored as part of a three-goal first period for the Penguins, helping them to a win and series split against the Nashville Predators, a franchise that was just 10 years old during the Penguins last trip. So while most things change, some things remain the same.