MONTREAL — It took just 56 seconds for Sidney Crosby to bring Canada’s fans to their knees after lifting them to their feet minutes before this 4 Nations Face-Off game against Sweden even started.
The 37-year-old man known as “Sid the Kid” got a standing ovation in warmup from the Montreal crowd. He sent the fans into a frenzy by following Mario Lemieux to centre ice during the pre-game ceremony. And then Crosby left everyone in the building in awe, starting Wednesday’s tournament opener by completing some pitch and catch with Connor McDavid with a blind, spinning backhand pass to Nathan MacKinnon for the power-play goal that made it 1-0 Canada — and finishing the game with a blind drop pass to Mitch Marner for the 4-3 overtime winner.
“Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!” chants rained down as he accepted player-of-the game honours.
The Cole Harbour, N.S., native later called it something he’d always remember.
“As someone who loves to play in an environment like that,” Crosby said, “I grew up a Montreal Canadiens fan, to have an ovation like that here was really special…”
So was his performance.
In a career made of iconic international performances, this one, which extended Crosby’s unbeaten streak to 26 games with the Maple Leaf on his chest, emboldened his legacy.
It started with that pass to MacKinnon and, before it ended with him sitting on the bench as Marner shot his pass by Filip Gustavsson, Crosby pushed Canada from its heels back onto its toes with the pass to Mark Stone that made it 3-1.
Jon Cooper was anything but surprised.
“Just his demeanour,” Canada’s coach said, “he says all the right things at the right time, and then you need a lift, and the team’s pushing, and he’s the one that sets up the helper. And then you need a lift in overtime, and he’s the one that sets it up. It’s no coincidence his record of when he’s wearing a Canadian jersey. It’s not a fluke. He will go down as the greatest player to ever represent this country. If not, he’s on the Mount Rushmore for sure of people that have thrown a Canadian jersey on.”
To think Crosby might not have worn it at this first best-on-best display since 2016…
He arrived in Montreal after missing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ last two games with an upper-body injury. He practised for two days with Canada and completed Wednesday’s morning skate before saying he had no apprehension about his physical and mental capacity to participate in the games. And then he completely erased any doubt about his ability to play them at the unparalleled level he’s always managed to reach in Canadian colours.
Canada needed Crosby’s skill — and his poise, especially as Sweden pushed back with goals from Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek to send this game to overtime — and he delivered it.
MacKinnon had four chances to score at three-on-three. Cale Makar had one, and Brandon Hagel had another.
But this game appeared destined to end on a play Crosby made — a responsible one, as he drove up the ice one-on-three and searched for the safest pass he could make to get a line change in — and sure enough, it did.
If you want a sense of what it meant to Marner to be on the receiving end of Crosby’s third assist in the game, he said, “I mean, you tell eight- or 10-year-old Mitch that he's scoring an overtime goal assisted by Sidney Crosby, a guy he's looked up to since day one, yeah, it's pretty crazy.”
McDavid called the opening goal “kind of a cool way to start the tournament” after hearing his name announced for a play that started with him, ended with MacKinnon, and came to life thanks to Crosby’s brilliance.
We’d refer to it as a play that bridged generational talent, arguably on par with that of Gretzky and Lemieux. We’d also say it was serendipitous that it was executed with the latter looking on from a premium seat.
Lemieux was in Canada’s room before it happened, reading out the starting lineup and pumping up adrenaline for an already supercharged group of players. Then he came out to a hockey god’s welcome in his home province.
Still, if the roar for Lemieux was deafening, “(For) Sidney Crosby, the roof was coming off,” said Cooper.
“He’s just a great ambassador for the game, a great person, a great player,” said Canada defenceman Drew Doughty, who was Crosby’s gold-medal-winning teammate at the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. “He deserved all of that. He’s done so much for Canada and Canadian hockey especially, and very happy for him, and hopefully it continues, and I think it will.”
It’s going to have to, with Canada only collecting two of three possible points in their opening game of this round robin.
Up next will be a game against the United States on Saturday, and then they’ll have one more to play against Finland before the teams with the most points face off in next Thursday’s final in Boston.
If Wednesday’s game was any indication of what Crosby will deliver before it ends, Canadian fans will have much more to cheer about.
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