When Canada revealed its initial group of players on June 28, Crosby, MacKinnon and Marchand were named, along with Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar. Crosby says it was a special day for Nova Scotia hockey.
Special enough for the three players to get a small provincial flag sewn on the shoulders of each of their Team Canada jerseys?
“If we’re allowed, we might,” he said with a chuckle. “Either way, it’s a great feeling for us. I guess things have kind of come full circle. This is for all those years we’d go to those big tournaments in Toronto and Montreal, and sometimes we got waxed. Well, you know, now we'll do the waxing. We'll be the proud ones.
“Nova Scotia, it’s a smaller [province], and we're certainly proud of it. We have a lot of pride being from there, and now there are more guys from there too. We’re all pulling from one another, and to see more and more guys coming from there is awesome.”
Crosby, MacKinnon and Marchand often are part of summer skates in the area. MacKinnon, an Avalanche forward and a native of Cole Harbour like Crosby, said he is always on the opposite team of the one with Sid and Marchand.
“It’s competitive,” MacKinnon said. “A couple of times over the course of the summer there are heated arguments, but it’s fun.”
Crosby is 37, eight years older than MacKinnon. As such, when the latter was playing minor hockey in the area, he idolized the local kid who’d gone on to be Penguins captain.
Years later, they are the closest friends. During the summer they train together, skate together, hang out together. They even appear in commercials together, including the most recent one in which they drive a Zamboni through a Tim Hortons drive-thru.
In February, they’ll be teammates together, representing their country in the first best-on-best competition since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
“I'd love to be on his wing,” MacKinnon said. “That'd be cool. I think we’d play well together.”
During the World Cup of Hockey eight years ago, it was Marchand, now the captain of the Boston Bruins, who was on Crosby’s wing. Marchand scored short-handed with 44 seconds left in the title game for a 2-1 victory against Team Europe.
Marchand, who was born in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, is three years younger than Crosby and grew up hearing about the older kid in the area who was becoming more of a hockey phenom with each passing year. Who knew that, all these years later, he’d be teaming up with him, and MacKinnon, for Canada on an international stage?
“I think there’s kind of a hard-working mentality back home,” Marchand said. “And when you skate with elite guys like that, you tend to push each other, especially with those two. They train together a lot more and push each other to be the best. It’s amazing to stand back and watch it.
“It’s great that three kids from the same area get to play together on a team like that. It doesn’t happen often, and we’re proud of it. It’s a pretty incredible thing.”
For Crosby, MacKinnon and Marchand. For Team Canada. And especially for the Halifax area and the people of Nova Scotia whose passion for the sport cannot be questioned.
MEETINGS OF THE MINDS
Hockey Hall of Fame weekend in Toronto will be followed by the general managers meeting at the League offices Tuesday.
One of the hot topics of discussion revolves around replays and the length of time it takes to make decisions in certain situations. Issues involving Stanley Cup Playoff rosters are also on the agenda.
With the GMs already gathered in the same place, the management teams of Canada and the United States will take advantage and also congregate Tuesday and Wednesday to continue debates as to their final rosters, which must be submitted in early December. The first six players for each of the four teams, which also includes Sweden and Finland, were submitted in late June.
Interestingly, with such a short lead-in for the tournament, which runs Feb. 12-20, there are different philosophies when it comes to roster construction.
According to Canadian assistant GM Jim Nill, who is also the GM of the Dallas Stars, familiarity between players is a key because there will be so little practice time before the games begin. For example, pairings from the same team, such as hypothetically teaming up Oilers forwards Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman or Makar and Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews, are factors that come into consideration.
U.S. GM Bill Guerin, who is also GM of the Minnesota Wild, has a different take when it comes to that.
“We’re looking at it not so much as familiarity, as it is on how guys can fill roles,” Guerin said. “Look, these are All-Star players. So, who’s willing to take on a defensive role? A checking role? Kill penalties? All these things go into it.
“I’ll say this much, when you’ve got so many skilled players to choose from, it’s not easy.”
CHARA CHANGED THE GAME
It’s just one person’s opinion, but it says here that Zdeno Chara was the most influential free agent signing in the NHL in the past 20 years.
Here’s why.
The behemoth 6-foot-9, 250-pound defenseman signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract with Boston on July 1, 2006. He would play for them for the next 14 seasons before retiring as a Bruin in 2022 after one-year stints with the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders.
What he meant to the Bruins -- and the sport, for that matter -- speaks for itself.
He was Boston’s captain from 2006-2020 and, as such, was handed the Stanley Cup by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman after the Bruins won in 2011. He helped them reach the Cup Final two other times, against the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and St. Louis Blues in 2019. He won the Norris Trophy as the League’s top defenseman in 2009 and the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2011.
In the process, he changed the way the sport is played, which very few players in the history of the game have done.
“When he was out there, with his size and wingspan, teams couldn’t just enter the zone freely,” former Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron said during an interview last year. “You either had to be precise in your passing to avoid him, or you had to dump it in behind him and risk the physicality of going to get it. And the way he could take away passing lanes with that long stick on the penalty kill was something we saw throughout his career.
“Opposing teams had to change their game plans whenever he was on the ice.”
As Hockey Hall of Fame celebrations here in Toronto reach the climax with induction ceremonies Monday, a look into the crystal ball shows candidates for the Class of 2025 might rank as one of the best ever. Included in those who are eligible: forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton, defenseman Duncan Keith and goalie Carey Price.
And, of course, Chara.
There have been some elite Hall of Fame classes in the past: Ken Dryden, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Harry Sinden (1983); Mario Lemieux, Bryan Trottier, Glen Sather (1997); Ron Francis, Al MacInnis, Mark Messier, Scott Stevens, Jim Gregory (2007); Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman, Lou Lamoriello (2009); Rob Blake, Peter Forsberg, Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano, Pat Burns, Bill McCreary (2014).
Is next year’s worthy of comparisons?
Whatever the case, Chara certainly is. After all, if ever there was a player who influenced how the game was played regardless of what the scoreboard or stat sheet showed, it was uniquely him.
Isn’t that what the Hall of Fame is all about?
4 NATIONS STOCK MARKET
Heading into Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Buffalo Sabres forward had points in 11 of his past 12 games and has 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in 15 games this season. Combine that talent with his size (6-6, 220), and you have a rare talent that U.S. brass is definitely intrigued by. The 27-year-old normally plays center, but there have been internal discussions about shifting him to the wing, given the glut of talent the Americans potentially have up the middle.
Thompson’s unique ability to shield the puck in tight spaces, then suddenly step on the gas pedal for a burst of speed when a crack of open ice presents itself, well, that combination is not only rare, but coveted as well.
In the end, Thompson’s productive start to the season definitely has caught the attention of the U.S. hierarchy, if it hadn’t already.