Home for the holidays
NHL superstar Sidney Crosby celebrates at 30, back where it all began
Sidney Crosby turns 30 on Monday and he will be home to celebrate, serving as parade marshal of Halifax’s Natal Day parade.
As he turns 30 on Monday, Sidney Crosby will celebrate his third Stanley Cup win parading the cherished mug through the streets of the city where he’s been a star since he was five years old.
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain will take in the festivities knowing that after 12 years in the NHL, his place is already assured in the pantheon of the game’s greats and that he has fulfilled the promise that many saw in him from almost the first time he laced up a pair of skates.
In the tradition of Orr, Gretzky, Lemieux and now Connor McDavid, “Sid the Kid,” was a hockey prodigy.
“He was not only the best player I ever saw, but significantly the best player,” said Brian Newton, a retired lawyer who coached a seven-year-old Crosby as a highscoring centre on Cole Harbour’s Novice AAA Wings.
In a recent interview, Newton recalled his first brush with a fiveyear-old Crosby — it came after getting a phone call from Sidney’s father Troy.
Newton said the hockey season was about a month old when Troy Crosby asked that his son, who was playing Timbits hockey at the time, be moved up to play with the six-year-old group.
Knowing how some parents can be, Newton said he agreed to see whether the move should be made, but he asked Troy not to describe his son.
“I said ‘Well no, if he’s this good a player I’ll be able to pick him out,”’ said Newton.
Newton said shortly after the conversation he went to a Cole Harbour rink one Saturday morning.
“I just kind of hid myself from the parents and out these guys came and he just stuck out like a sore thumb,” he recalled. “It was just amazing – I’d never seen anyone with that skill level at five years of age.”
Newton said he was “amazed” to watch the young Crosby control
the puck as a gaggle of tiny players frantically tried to get it away from him.
Crosby was moved up with the six-year-olds and the next year he started playing rep, a level reserved for the best players in each age group.
Newton said at six and seven years of age, Crosby’s physical skills were clearly recognizable — as were other traits that often separate the great ones.
“He not only had the physical skills, but when I looked at him he had that inner quality, that desire, that drive and that followed Sidney right through minor hockey,” he said.
There was also a “quiet confidence” Newton noted, that enabled him to possess the puck in the face of players who were
Sidney Crosby’s dominance in Nova Scotia lasted until the age of 14 when he left home to play at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, a prep school in Minnesota. From there it was on to Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and finally the NHL, where his numbers confirm his status as a future Hall of Famer: • 382 goals • 645 assists • Three Stanley Cups • Two Olympic Gold Medals • Two Hart Trophies as the NHL’s most valuable player
often one to two years older than he was.
Crosby’s minor hockey dominance continued into peewee, where he announced his arrival on a much bigger stage, the Quebec International Peewee Tournament.
His coach then and current family friend, Paul Mason, said going into the tournament the media hype surrounded a local boy as the next “must-see” player.
That all changed after Crosby scored six goals and four assists for Cole Harbour in his first tournament game.
“We compared him against the best in the world and he was the best,” said Mason.
“You knew at that point that you had someone here that was pretty special.”
Through it all Crosby’s remained very much the hometown boy. It’s something that’s endeared him to his fans and to those with a personal connection.
“Fame and fortune I don’t think have really changed him very much at all,” said Newton. “Everybody in Cole Harbour, they respect him so much because he always comes home, he’s always down to earth, he’s running his hockey school here and he’s still part of our community.”
Halifax’s mayor recently announced that Crosby would be parade marshal of Monday’s annual Natal Day parade, with thousands expected to cheer a favourite son.