The Power of a Puck: Sidney Crosby Creates Lasting Memory for Young Fan 

With the stardom that Sidney Crosby has achieved throughout his illustrious career, he can make somebody’s day with even the smallest of actions. He can turn a regular Sunday afternoon into the stuff of dreams with just the flick of a wrist.

That’s exactly what he did earlier this season when the captain tossed a puck to 10-year-old Camden Basinger after warmups. He got to experience something that every hockey fan around the world dreams of, and his reaction was priceless.

Camden was at the game with his dad, Cary, and sister, Tagan, after the family had received some last-minute tickets from a friend. They headed to the seats directly above the entrance to the runway, where Camden said that he’d been trying to get the attention of players for a while, but to no avail. That meant he was hardly even looking when No. 87 started to go down the tunnel.

Cary said he grabbed his son as Crosby suddenly slowed down, as the Penguins superstar has always been one of Camden’s favorite players.

“At the last second before he went in the tunnel, he went from looking down and looked up at Camden,” Cary said, “and he pulled the puck from his glove.”

Once the rubber disc landed in his hands, Camden broke down, completely overwhelmed by his excitement.

“At first I didn’t even know what to think,” he said. “I didn’t even know what was happening. I had the puck in my hand, and I looked at Sidney Crosby, and I was like: this is happening for reals!”

The feeling was so special he couldn’t even get words to come out of his mouth. Cary said that was pretty abnormal for someone who is normally a talkative kid. “Cam said, ‘you know when I was speechless, that I was overwhelmed,’” Cary laughed.

To have one of the greatest hockey players of all time stop in the middle of his walk back to the locker room to single out a kid and give him a memory to last a lifetime is a pretty amazing feeling.

“I think that’s what really overwhelmed him,” Cary said. “That Sidney Crosby noticed him and went out of his way to do something special for him. I told him that’s just who Sid is.”

Soon the moment had passed, and everything returned to normal. That is, until they started being flooded with phone calls and texts, letting them know that the moment was captured on television by Penguins senior director of production operations Mike Davenport, who was operating one of the cameras. Minutes later, Tagan was scrolling on her phone when she spotted some familiar faces.

“I was scrolling through Instagram, and we came up on my Instagram page,” she said. “I was like ‘CAMDEN, we’re on their Instagram!’”

Camden giggled at the idea that he had become a celebrity. He said everyone kept coming up to him at school the next day asking him to pick his favorite number for the lottery.

“It was pretty fun to be on all the sites,” he said. “I thought it had settled down and now I’m being interviewed again, and it's awesome!”

Since then, the puck has bounced around the household, from among his trophies on a bookshelf, to the center of the dining room table.

They’ll be heading to their next game later this month, where Camden says he’ll try to add even more souvenirs to his collection.