Crosby embracing Nova Scotia homecoming with Penguins for preseason game

COLE HARBOUR, Nova Scotia -- By the time you read this, Pittsburgh Penguins players will have munched on the pudding known as haggis, made from the livers, hearts and lungs of sheep.

And learned how to shuck oysters, in all their slimy, gooey glory.

All courtesy of Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh captain, who brought team building to an entirely new level on Saturday.

The Penguins arrived in this province Friday in preparation for the Nova Scotia Showdown, a preseason game between the Penguins and Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Centre in downtown Halifax on Monday.

From the moment months ago that he learned the Penguins would be playing here, Crosby was stoked. A proud native of Cole Harbour, 10 miles from Halifax, the 36-year-old began planning out his transformation from NHL star to tour guide.

His mandate was simple.

He wanted to give his teammates an inside look at the hockey hotbed that is the Halifax area, the home of three of the biggest stars in the NHL -- Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche and fellow forward Brad Marchand, named captain of the Boston Bruins this month.

He wanted to show off, with pride, his hometown, the community that has hosted his Stanley Cup celebrations three times (2009, 2016, 2017).

He wanted to embrace the opportunity to play an NHL game here in front of friends and family for only the second time, the first being an exhibition in 2006, when the Penguins were in and out of town in a flash.

Most importantly, he wanted to give the Penguins a taste of Atlantic Maritime life and culture, both literally and figuratively.

“I think just the feel of it, the people, and to see the excitement for the game,” Crosby said Friday. “And just to get around the city a little bit, those types of things.

“It’s somewhere that I’m really proud of, and I hope everyone enjoys themselves there.”

In order to do that, he set something up with a unique Maritime flavor.

Welcome to “The Amazing Race: Crosby Edition.”

“When Sidney found out the team was coming here, he wanted to find a fun way to celebrate his hometown with his teammates and educate them on why it’s such a special place,” his father, Troy, said.

He seems to have done exactly that.

After a morning of golf Saturday, the unsuspecting Penguins set out on an “Amazing Race”-like scavenger-hunt competition that would take them through the streets of Cole Harbour, Dartmouth and downtown Halifax, and across Halifax Harbour on a ferry.

Under the format, the players were divided into teams. They were given instructions of where to go, what venues to visit and what tasks they were to do (e.g., eating haggis, shucking oysters), all while going up against the clock.

The instructions came on laminated cards featuring the Penguins logo and a “Welcome to Cole Harbour” greeting.

The message on one of the cards read, “Every player has to shuck two oysters and eat them or have a teammate eat them on their behalf. Careful with that knife, and don’t break any shells!”

Crosby enlisted the help of Paul Mason, one of his baseball and minor hockey coaches, to help plan the event. Mason was paramount in setting up the three Cole Harbour Stanley Cup celebrations in Crosby’s honor, and No. 87 didn’t hesitate when it came to the perfect person to set up this event.

“In organizing this, when he talked to me about it, he wants this entire weekend to be pretty special for the community, for his teammates, for everyone around him,” Mason said. “You can sense how much these few days mean to him. You could sense his anticipation for months.”

Mason said that even though Crosby is the host for his teammates this weekend, he’s going to try to win everything: golf, the scavenger hunt, the preseason game Monday, you name it.

“He’s competitive at everything, even as a little kid when I was coaching him,” Mason said. “And that hasn’t changed.

“When the NHL was shut down during COVID, his dad Troy and I played Sidney and one of his friends in a golf match. They should have won, but somehow we did. He didn’t accept that. He said it was two out of three. When we won the second one he said it was three out of five. We ended up playing seven of them. The seventh one was in December with snow on the ground. They won that one to take the series 4-3. Suddenly that was acceptable because they’d won.

“Once they’d finally won, it was over,” Mason said with a laugh.

In terms of the scavenger hunt, the Penguins tweeted a video Saturday night of center Evgeni Malkin claiming his team won the event.

But this weekend is more than just a competition for Crosby. As Mason calls it, it’s “a celebration.”

“I think this is a great trip for the Penguins organization,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think this a terrific trip for Sid in particular, going to his hometown. He’s done so much for the Pittsburgh Penguins, he’s done so much for the NHL, he’s done so much for the city of Pittsburgh. To have the opportunity to bring his team to his hometown and play an exhibition game there is a great tribute to him.”

Kind words. Now pass the haggis.

* * * *

Make the 10-minute drive from Halifax to Cole Harbour and you are greeted by the iconic welcome sign that has been photographed countless times over the years.

“Cole Harbour. Home of Sidney Crosby,” it reads.

Last year, city officials added a message to the bottom.

“We proudly congratulate Nathan MacKinnon on the 2021/22 Stanley Cup Championship,” it says.

When you understand that this area has produced three elite NHLers -- Cole Harbour natives Crosby and MacKinnon, and the Halifax-born Marchand -- it really is an impressive feat especially for a province like Nova Scotia, which has a population of just under 1 million. Ontario, the home province of Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, has 14.7 million people.

No matter. The quality of Nova Scotia’s top hockey-playing elite can’t be debated.

Consider this: Three of the NHL’s top seven scorers since the 2012-13 season come from this region of Nova Scotia. Crosby is first with 893 points (327 goals, 566 assists), Marchand ranks sixth with 765 (323 goals, 442 assists) and MacKinnon is seventh with 759 (284 goals, 475 assists).

So what’s in the water in these parts that have produced three players who might one day all receive consideration for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, with Crosby leading that list?

“I remember an ESPN crew coming up here a few years ago asking me that same question,” Mason said. “For the record, it’s not the water. It’s just three elite athletes working toward their goals. There’s no secret. They’re just hardworking, down-to-earth guys. And they’re stars. And we take pride that they’re from here.

“The other thing is, you hear people around here talk about [Marchand] and how he’s matured and become a much better person the past few years. That’s important here. How you represent yourself when you’re from here is very important.

“And Sid sets the example of that.”

Jon Greenwood has seen that firsthand. He coached MacKinnon in minor hockey with the Cole Harbour Wings at a time when the boy idolized Crosby, who is eight years older.

“It’s Sid’s work ethic,” said Greenwood, now an assistant with the St. Mary’s University men’s hockey team. “They see it, and it rubs off on those guys. It goes far beyond skill. I read something recently that called him the greatest grinder in hockey history. That’s not talking about his talent. That’s all about desire and will.

“The other thing is, he’s always come back in the summers to train. This is his home. Nate and [Marchand] do the same, as do some of the other pros from the area. They understand it’s a special place.”

Greenwood referred to an event earlier this month when MacKinnon left Avalanche training camp to return here for a ceremony in which Halifax of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League retired his No. 22. MacKinnon played for Halifax from 2011-13 and won the Memorial Cup in his final season with the team.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” MacKinnon said during the tribute at Scotiabank Centre on Sept. 22. “… Being from here, I spent my summers back home in Halifax. Definitely a close connection to the city.” 

During some of those summers, Greenwood has helped organize some of the offseason skates featuring Crosby, MacKinnon and Marchand at a local arena. The competitiveness gets intense at times, something Greenwood said helps all three drive each other.

“Yeah, they’re friends,” he said. “But when they start playing against each other at times, you’d never know it. They want to beat one another at any and all costs.

“You can see how that drive, that determination, that win-at-all-costs attitude rubs off on some of the younger guys.”

Count Drake Batherson as one of them. The 25-year-old Senators forward grew up in New Minas, 50 miles northwest of Halifax, and has been training during the offseason with Crosby, Marchand and MacKinnon since 2019. He calls those workouts “one of my favorite times of the year.”

As such, he’s looking forward to facing Crosby and the Penguins in Halifax on Monday.

“I've still got posters of the Penguins and Sid on my wall at my parents' house, so it's pretty fun now that me and Sid have built a relationship and we're buddies," Batherson said. "It's pretty cool looking back on it.”

Crosby agrees, especially heading into the Nova Scotia Showdown.

“Obviously it’s going to be a fun game,” he said. “(Penguins defenseman Ryan) Graves is from Nova Scotia too, and Drake will be on the other side, so it’s cool to have a couple of local guys taking part.

“It’s something that doesn’t happen too often.”

The fans have gobbled up tickets as a result. Some are going for as much as $1,200 on the secondary market for the game at the 11,093-seat arena, a result of the buzz surrounding Crosby’s return.

“To be the best player in the game for so many years, people there just idolize him and for what he's done in the community and for kids growing up,” Graves said. “Like, just the way he's paved the way for them, it's awesome.

“Him coming home and doing this game for the people that wouldn't have the chance to come to Pittsburgh or other places that are a little further away -- they’ll get to see him around the community, see that game, hopefully -- is great.”

* * * *

It was a tough spring and summer for Nova Scotia.

In late May and early June, wildfires raged through the outskirts of Halifax and throughout the province. More than 16,000 people were forced to evacuate as a result, many eventually returning to find their homes were nothing more than heaps of smoldering ashes.

Less than two months later, the area was hit with record rainfall that caused historic flooding. Water did seep into Crosby’s home, though to nowhere near the extent of some others where people pretty much lost everything.

“The area has been through a lot,” he said. “But the great thing about some of these communities, and the area in general, is that everyone sticks together and everyone’s willing to help each other.

“I think when you’ve seen adverse times here over the years, you’ve seen people come together more and more. And I think we take a lot of pride in that here. The fact that people know they can depend on each other is huge. I think we’ve shown that time and time again, and there’s pride that comes with that.”

Crosby is doing his part to teach local kids exactly that.

On Sunday, the Penguins will hold a practice at Cole Harbour Place. Hundreds of children from the local minor hockey systems have been invited to attend and take part in a Q&A session with some Pittsburgh players and, with a select few kids getting to go on the ice with them.

Part of that group will be kids from minor hockey whose families lost their homes in the fires. Crosby specifically wanted them to attend, with Mason helping to make it happen. Given the trauma they and their families have gone through, it is Crosby’s way of trying to brighten up their lives, even if it’s just for one afternoon.

“That’s Sid, right?” Greenwood said. “He’s going to have an impact on these kids, both on the ice and off.”

He already has.

In 2009, Crosby established the Sidney Crosby Foundation, an organization that improves the lives of children who are sick or struggling. More recently, Crosby and several foundation board members created Nova Scotia Showdown T-shirts heading into the game Monday, with proceeds going to his foundation.

“He’s helping young kids who are going through hard times, and he’s being a role model for young hockey players in the province,” Mason said. “He’s going out of his way to show his Penguins a good time here, and he’s being a great ambassador for the community.”

Greenwood agrees.

“It’s a privilege,” he said, “to say you live in the same place as someone like that.”

Just like it is for Crosby to call this place home.