Like all of the greatest hockey talents, Sidney Crosby has invented his own way to play, to lead and, in the biggest moments, to win
On a January night, after a recent Tampa Bay win in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby came out to meet Team Canada coach Jon Cooper in the hallways of PPG Paints Arena.
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Very quickly into their conversation, Crosby asked Cooper to do something for him.
“Can you go to your dressing room and ask Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel to come out and meet me?” Crosby asked.
“I went to the room and told the guys that Sid wanted to talk to them.” said Cooper. “You should have seen their faces. They were like, ‘Really, Sidney Crosby wants to talk to us!’ They were amazed and excited.
“Then the four of them got together and our guys were like kids in a candy store. Meeting their hero. And as a coach, I just backed away and let the four of them talk. They didn’t need me there. Sid was doing the talking (about Team Canada in the 4 Nations tournament) and I just watched thinking, “There’s our leader.
“That’s Sid being Sid.”
You hear that said a lot about Sidney Crosby. That’s Sid being Sid.
Sid, the greatest winner in hockey history. Sid, the longtime face of the National Hockey League. Sid, now in his 20th NHL season, captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, captain of Team Canada. Captain Hockey.
Just days away from the 4 Nations Face-Off, Canada — both the hockey team and the country — is waiting to see if its captain will be healthy enough to participate after suffering an upper-body injury on Tuesday versus the New Jersey Devils.
He just doesn’t seem to stop, he doesn’t seem to age. Sid is still playing the way he’s always played. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone like him befor
Jim Nill, Dallas Stars GM
“When you’re talking great players, great winners in hockey, you’re talking about a pretty short list. You’re talking about Mark Messier, you’re talking about Mario Lemieux, you’re talking about Wayne Gretzky,” said Jim Nill, the general manager of the Dallas Stars. “They’ve done it all. They’ve won. They’ve been huge in big games. They’re difference makers.
“Last year (Sid) had a career year. This year, he’s playing better. He just doesn’t seem to stop, he doesn’t seem to age. Sid is still playing the way he’s always played. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone like him before.”
What makes Sid, Sid? What makes him so special? He’s not necessarily fast, the way Connor McDavid is lightning fast. He’s not necessarily explosive, the way Nathan McKinnon is explosive. He doesn’t shoot like Alexander Ovechkin or Auston Matthews. He doesn’t see the ice the way Gretzky did or take your breath away the way Lemieux could, but like all of the greatest of hockey talents he has invented his own way to play, to lead, and eventually and seemingly always internationally, to win.
This is the anatomy of an individual champion in the ultimate team sport. At the ages of 16 and 17, Sid won his first and second World Junior championships playing for Team Canada.
At 18, he won his first of two World Championships.
By 20, he carried the Stanley Cup for the first of three times with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
At 22, he scored the Golden Goal for Team Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics, the most famous of his career.
By 26, he won his second Olympic gold medal.
By 28, he won his first World Cup and his second Stanley Cup.
At 29, he won his third Stanley Cup.
Now 37, his resume is breathtaking: In total, that’s three Stanley Cups, two World Juniors, two Olympic golds, two World Championships, one World Cup for Crosby. And in the past 25 games he has played for Team Canada, going back to midway through the Vancouver Olympics, his record wearing Team Canada’s colours through two Olympics, one World Championship and one World Cup is 25-0.
That’s twenty-five and oh. No one has ever done that before. No one will ever do that again.
And Game 26 will come against Team Sweden on Wednesday night in Montreal in the opener of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, the pre-cursor to the return of best-on-best hockey at next winter’s Olympic Games.
So much of the history is what hockey people call Sid being Sid. His championship pedigree is beyond remarkable. He won his first Stanley Cup in his third NHL season. How many first overall draft picks have done that? Gretzky and Messier won their first Cups in their fifth seasons. Lemieux won in his seventh year. McKinnon won his only Cup in his ninth season. Ovechkin won his only Cup in his 13th season.
McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have spent 10 seasons together in Edmonton, the best 1-2 punch in today’s game, with no championships yet to call their own.
I believe it’s harder to win now than ever before. Sid has won his Cups in salary cap times
Jimmy Rutherford
“With Sid, you’re talking about the greatest winner ever,” said Jimmy Rutherford, the Vancouver executive, talking of the Crosby he won two Cups with in Pittsburgh. “He didn’t just win Cups, you have to look at this era differently, he won them in the salary cap era. Messier or others didn’t have to do that.
“I remember when we were in the final in ’02 with Carolina. We were getting ready to drop the puck against the Red Wings and my boss, Peter Karmanos hit me in the arm and said, ‘Those six guys starting for Detroit make more money than our entire team.’ That’s what hockey was like back then.
“I believe it’s harder to win now than ever before. Sid has won his Cups in salary cap times. You look around at all of sports and you have Tom Brady with his amazing winning resume. You have (Patrick) Mahomes doing what he’s doing. You have LeBron (James). But when you look at hockey and you talk about Sid, I am in no way disrespecting the great players who haven’t won or haven’t won the way this guy has, or came before him, but nobody has won the way this guy has.”
Messier is considered by many to be the greatest captain and leader in hockey history. That’s a mantle he’s carried around for more than three decades. He won five Stanley Cups with those great Edmonton Oilers teams, the fifth one coming after Gretzky had been traded to Los Angeles. And he won his sixth Cup with the historic championship victory of the New York Rangers.
The only Stanley Cup won by New York in what is now the past 85 years.
Messier admits he doesn’t know Crosby well. They’ve met a few times, spoken a few times. But since Crosby entered the NHL, four years after Messier retired, Messier has paid particular attention to the Pittsburgh captain.
“I have to admit, he’s been my favourite player to watch since he’s come to the NHL,” said Messier. “I’ve said it over and over again, he could have played in any era. He might be the best corner man that’s ever played the game. That’s something when you consider he’s an electrifying open ice player. And he’s a winner, everything he’s done in his career is unbelievable.
“The Stanley Cups won. The tournaments won. The list goes on and on and on. I think you’re talking about arguably a Top 5 player of all time.”
A list Messier doesn’t include himself on.
His list would have Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Lemieux. And now Crosby, his Mount Rushmore of five players rather than four.
Where does leadership come from and why do some great players have it and some do not?
“In the end, it’s the ability to galvanize people for a common goal,” said Messier. “You have to be able to adapt to the environment and understand who you are leading and for what purpose. When you’re around a player like that, there’s a difference between the focus level of the player, the awareness and energy. Those players are just built differently. I got to watch Gretzky, the greatest player of all time, day in, day out in Edmonton. I got to see up close a player who worked on his game every single day, every single practice. How do we get better? How do I get better?
“Those kind of players are built differently, they think differently. When you think about leadership, Sidney checks every box. The focus that it takes to play one year and have a great year is one thing. The focus that it takes to play 20 great solid straight years is incredible.”
Ken Hitchcock, the Hall of Fame hockey coach, was fortunate to have Crosby on his Olympic teams in 2010 and 2014, and studied him closely throughout those events.
“The more important the game, the more Crosby elevated his play to a level that it became hard for players to play against him,” said Hitchcock. “The two Olympics we were together for, he would start in the middle of the pack, and as the games got more important, he went to the top. He has a competitive gear that very few people can obtain. And he brings that gear out when it matters most.
“When you see that up close, you know you’re seeing something special. I’ve known Mark (Messier) since he was a kid. I saw the same stuff with Mark that I saw in Sid. The ability to elevate. I saw Mark do that at 15. I saw Sid do that at 16.
“To find athletes like this, you’re talking about Kobe Bryant, you’re talking about Michael Jordan, you’re talking about LeBron. And you’re talking about Sid. He has a strength on the puck that nobody can take away from him. His ability to keep it, to get it back, to hang onto it in tight spots is at an unbelievable level. The strength he has on his skates, his edging. He wants the puck in areas most people give it up.”
The goal everybody remembers is the Golden Goal from the Vancouver Olympics. But the goal that should be talked about more — maybe Crosby’s signature assist — came in a playoff series against the Ottawa Senators in 2010.
Crosby picked up a puck deep in the Senators zone with Jason Spezza draped all over him. He skated to his left, cut to his right, then his left, then his right — holding the puck for more than 10 seconds — before setting up Kris Letang for a goal.
It’s one of those plays you have to watch over and over again, because it’s so spectacular.
“I’ve seen the highlight too many times,” said Spezza, who can laugh about it as a front office executive with Crosby’s Penguins. Spezza was larger than Crosby, longer, and a decent skater himself. “The way he protected the puck down low was like nothing we had ever seen until he came into the league.”
Tony Granato played 14 years in the NHL, six of them alongside Gretzky in Los Angeles. After that, he coached Crosby for six seasons as an assistant with the Penguins.
Gretzky’s offensive brilliance began with his vision and his anticipation. He saw things no one else in hockey saw. He discovered new ways to create offence, finding open spaces on the ice, turning passing into an art form, never being satisfied with what he accomplished the night before.
Granato said that Crosby’s style of play is nothing like the game Gretzky played, but Crosby was certainly curious about all Gretzky had done in order to succeed.
“Sid was very inquisitive and curious about everything Wayne did, how he’d practice, how he lived, wanted to know everything about him. He asked a lot about him.
“It’s not fair to compare anyone with Wayne but they do have some things in common. Little things. Sid would show up at the rink when nobody else would. There wasn’t a day that he didn’t try something he hadn’t done before, something dangerous or challenging, something to push himself. He has the ability to think outside the box.
“He would work on things like taking pucks off his skates, batting pucks out of the air, doing things that other players don’t even think about, and he’d do all that with the strongest lower body base probably of anyone who’s ever played. His base is so strong he’s uncheckable in motion. That allows him to make plays no one else can make.”
Different as they may be, Granato sees more comparisons between Gretzky and Crosby.
“They’re both so special,” said Granato. “When you played with Gretz, and I always say that being on his line is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, you just hoped you didn’t disappoint him. I got to coach Sid for six years and that was as cool as you could get. They just operate on a different plane than anyone else.
“The burden they would carry about on a daily basis, and handle it with grace and respect, is the one thing you could learn from both of them. They’re not about themselves. They’re about the game. The game is more important than their own personal success.”
The game has been Crosby’s professional life. It’s who he is and what he talks about. Hockey is his everything. And it’s what matters most to him.
Once or twice a season, when Ray Shero was general manager of the Penguins, he would invite Crosby to his office for a brief meeting that was never brief.
“Usually it was about four-hours long,” said Shero, now working in a consulting role with the Minnesota Wild. “I’d say to Sid, ‘What’s on your mind?’ And he’d say ‘Not much.’ And then we’d talk hockey for hours, usually all afternoon.
“Detailed talk about the game, the team, getting better, training, he has such an active mind. He’s always thinking about everything. He asks good questions. He wants good answers. And often the last thing he thought about — which tells you a lot about Sid — is money.
“One time, just after he signed his second contract in Pittsburgh, I took out a calculator in our meeting. I told him the season was 180-some days long and players got paid by the day. I then calculated how much money he was going to be getting paid each day.
“I slid him the calculator and he said, ‘What?’
“I told him that’s what you’re going to be paid every day.
“He said ‘You’re kidding, right?’
“I said no, that’s the number.
“He just stared at it and said ‘Holy cow. I guess I shouldn’t skip any optional practices.’
“That’s Sid being Sid. It was never about money with him. He’s left a lot of money on the table over the years. But when he saw how much he was making in his first big contract, how much per day, it shocked him. He’d never looked at it that way before.”
When Jimmy Rutherford took over as GM of the Penguins, he made it a point to meet with Crosby almost immediately. “I flew to Pittsburgh to have dinner with him and from the time you shake his hand, and you listen to all his input and all his knowledge, you just walk away and say ‘Wow.’ He’s more special in person than you might have thought he was before you got to meet him.”
Ken Holland says almost the same thing even though he was never Crosby’s GM. Holland was part of the management team at both the Vancouver and Sochi gold medal Olympics, and he was GM of the Red Wings for the back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in which Pittsburgh played Detroit in Crosby’s early years.
What he saw then, and sees now, is that the great ones, no matter what sport they play, have a different way of doing things.
“They play their best in the biggest moments,” said Holland. “You saw that with Steph Curry at the Olympics last summer. Ultimately, no matter what the circumstance, Sid drove people to greater heights. It’s not just how they play, it’s how people follow them and jump aboard.
“How committed are they? How much drive do they have? How motivated are they? How singularly driven are they? It’s not an accident that he scored the Golden Goal. That’s what winners do. And he’s one of the greatest winners of all time.
“I didn’t know Sid personally before 2010, even though we played against him in the Finals in ’08 and ’09. He’s very confident, very comfortable, and he connects with people — his teammates, his coaches. I’ve been fortunate to be around Steve Yzerman and Nick Lidstrom and Crosby and McDavid and Draisaitl. You can’t always explain why, but they’re all different.
“Everybody loves Sid. He treats people well. He hangs out with everybody and he’s one of the guys. And the respect level for him, and for the game, is through the roof. When you’re around him you see he’s just a regular person but an extraordinary player.”
Kyle Dubas is in his second season with Crosby in Pittsburgh. Like everyone else who has been around Crosby over the years, he has been taken aback by the dedication he has to practice. “He works daily on the mastery of his craft,” said Dubas. “And he takes nothing for granted.”
But what has impressed Dubas the most is the way in which Crosby interacts with his teammates on a team struggling to find its way.
Sid drove people to greater heights. It’s not just how they play, it’s how people follow them and jump aboard
Ken Holland
“Recently, we were in Anaheim and we have a rookie defenceman, Owen Pickering, who was struggling. Sid is purposely hard on Owen in practice, competing full out against him, not maliciously, just showing the kid how hard he’s going to have to work to compete with him. Sid’s mindset is, I have to do this. If he’s going to get better, I have to do this. The kid got a little frustrated by the practice and you could see it was hard on him. He wasn’t feeling good about himself. The next day, Sid goes and gets the kid and takes him for a haircut. It’s a little gesture but on a team looking to build, it’s an important one. That’s the kind of thing Sid does on a daily basis. The kind of thing most people won’t notice.”
Five years ago, during COVID, the Penguins were upset by Montreal in the preliminary round of the playoffs. The disappointed team flew home from Toronto, where games were being played at Scotiabank Arena without fans.
The team scattered, as teams tend to scatter at the end of every season. Crosby didn’t scatter. He went from the airport to the arena. He wasn’t happy with how the season ended.
He got on the ice and practiced alone that afternoon. That was Sid being Sid.
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