Boston-so on Drew Doughty got his first taste from best-to-best hockey, he was the youngest member of Team Canada at the Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010, and it didn’t start so well for him.
Of course it was a conversation with one of the ‘veterans’ who helped him to turn the course and turn the event into a career-changing experience.
It does not matter that the player was only two years, four months and a day older than Doughty. It was the type of player born as a veteran.
It was Sidney Crosby.
“He was young,” Doughty remembers himself, “but I remember walking into the bus after one of our first exercises and he said,” Hey, come and sit next to me. “That was the first time I had a real conversation with him. He knew I was nervous, and he brought me in and sat down.”
At first glance that is a fairly simple anecdote. But it starts to take on more as soon as you see the pattern repeating again in stories that are shared by Canadian players and employees who have worked with Crosby under the burning heat lamp of the National Team environment.
In addition to the physical and mental gifts that made him one of the few wife of sport, the 37-year-old has a level of consciousness and emotional intelligence that has taken him entirely to a different level.
As good friend Nathan Mackinnon says: “I am sure there are many successful people who nobody really wants to be around, but boys are just attracted to him. He has a great personality. He is a great storyteller. He is just A nice guy to be in the area “
It is no coincidence that Crosby is now in position to claim a fourth consecutive best-best tournamentgictory when Canada is opposite Team USA in the champion match of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday evening.
His ability to make contact with teammates shines most in the short term, high-pressure tournaments, where even NHL shoot fiddling. Crosby not only understands how he can bring a team together, but he also helps to keep together when the pressure nails. Remember that these events usually contain several eliminations with one game, a large amount of attention and the uncertainty built into a game determined by a bouncing piece of rubber on ice.
“When he is in your dressing room, you always think you will win,” says former teammate Matt Duchene van Crosby, with whom he won an Olympic Games, a world championship and a world cup.
“It’s just the appearance he gives off there. The silent intensity and the confidence he has – you know that there is never too big for him. Even if he may feel nerves or something inside, he certainly doesn’t show it. “
Even if the oldest participant in the 4 nations, Crosby continues to demonstrate a flawless sense of timing. When Finland scored twice with his keeper on Monday afternoon, it was Crosby who stopped the freight train by delivering an open ice hit on Mikael Granlund before he shot the puck in an empty net.
“He is a leader,” says teammate Brandon Hagel. “He is the best in the world in my opinion. There is no man who does it like him – the way he portrays himself and how humble he is. It is incredible to look. Even last night it gets a bit close, who is it that the icing puts on the cake?
“It’s Sid.”
This has been a different national teaching experience than those who came for it.
Mackinnon says it is Crosby’s first time that he is playing with a team full of his biggest fans and, while making half jokes, sentiment is true. Doughty and Brad Marchand are the only players with whom he has previously won. And ask the younger players on the Roster about their personal meetings with no. 87 during this event and they light up.
Mitch Marner says that his winner of overtime about Sweden was surreal because it came to an assist from his boy’s hero. Thomas Harley calls Crosby a ‘God’, and adds: “You will be blind if you look him too long.” And the 23-year-old Seth Jarvis still buzzes about the fact that Crosby took the time to introduce himself after a Carolina Hurricanes-Pittsburgh Penguins competition in January.
“Well, f—,” says Jarvis. “I was not about to approach him. I would be a little starstruck. “
Those personal accents go a long way to creating a comfortable team environment.
Ryan Getzlaf, Who won two Olympic Gold Medals Alongside Crosby and Now Serves As Hockey Canada’s Player Relations Adviser, Sid’s, “Sid’s A Different Cat” in a Best-On-Best Setting Because of How Eager He is to Dagram Plays and To Dagram Plays and To Dagram Plays And To Dagram Plays And To Dagram Plays And To To Dagram Plays And To To Dagram Plays And To To Dagram Plays And To To To Dagram Plays And To To Dagram Plays And To To Dagram Plays and Bame Plays Up to a minute level.
Asked if that would be intimidating for a team of players who grew up that alerted him, Getzlaf replies: “No, not at this level. If he talks to you, you probably feel good. “
Crosby is a guy details in the core.
Nathan Mackinnon and Sidney Crosby are among the top 4 of the top 4 of Canada. (Maddie Meyer / Getty images)
When he met Hockey Canada Executive Scott Salmond in October for breakfast in Calgary, Crosby already knew which countries were sown in the same swimming pool as Canada at the Olympic Games in Milan 2026. He asked questions about club teams playing in the Champions Hockey League in Europe . Salmond does not think he once had a more thorough discussion with a player.
During the 4 Nations Tournament, head coach Jon Cooper is enthusiastic about the impact of Crosby on the group. Although he wants to keep specific details in -house, he notes that a book can be written about the way his captain behaves and helps to put the team in position to win.
“There is no shock or surprise about why this child has won as much as he has,” says Cooper. “There is no error in him in any way. You talk about cool things to be part of. This is cool to be part of, because he is here. “
As a reminder of how long Crosby this did for Canada: Cooper was still coaching in the USHL when he scored the golden goal in Vancouver. Crosby is the only member of the Triple Gold Club to complete all three legs as a captain, and Scott Niedermayer, the last man who wore the “C” of the country for Crosby, believes he was ready to a leader are, even as a 22-year-old old under an intense spotlight on the 2010 games.
“He could also have been a captain in Vancouver,” says Niedermayer. “He understood what was needed to be successful, not only as an individual, but probably more importantly as a team.”
The national team went 47-6 with Crosby in Uniform, dating from the World Juniors from 2004. Before that he once served as a stick boy for a Canadian World Junior Summer Camp in Halifax.
You can get the boy from Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia, but fame and fortune have never taken one of the Cole Harbor from Crosby.
Marchand could only chuckle during a recent dinner in the house of his buddy in the suburb of Pittsburgh when he walked into the living room and saw a rocking chair completely made of wood from Halifax.
“That is what he sits every day,” says Marchand. “He is just a very sober man, who does not happen often at his level and the things he has achieved. An enormous amount of respect for him. ‘
Everyone here does it.
There are no shortcuts for the incomprehensible heights that Crosby has climbed. His trophy case flows over, and yet he grows further for more, and places five points in three games during a 4 Nations tournament where he is played by injury. He has built up a compelling argument to go down as the most accomplished Canadian men’s hockey player of all time.
Crosby believes that the best leaders recommend a room, simply by being themselves, and therefore when the hours and minutes tap to Puck Drop on Thursday’s 4 Nations Championship, he will not wander from a very focused and concentrated Gameday routine. And every teammate who looks in his direction will have complete confidence that Captain Canada is ready to lead the way.
“He has a calming effect,” says Duchene. “I remember that I really felt that way at the (2014) Olympic Games. I was 22 years old and looked at him and boys who had been there, that helped you feel a little more brave to go outside that Canada represents. “
(Top photo: Vitor Munhoz / Getty images)