NHL stars won’t quit day jobs after coffee shop assignment
It’s the morning.
You wake up, get into your car, and pull into the drive- thru for your daily double- double.
And soon after you drive up to the window — toonie in hand — you realize Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon are there, fully dressed in Tim Hortons brown uniforms, waiting to take your money.
“Yeah, we were struggling,” said MacKinnon with a chuckle. “We couldn’t really work it. We didn’t know what to do. They have a timer that says if you are doing a good job or not. I think we were, like, 40 seconds slower than their average time. We were about a minute and 10 seconds for each car.”
“Rookies” — the newest edition of commercials put out by the Canadian coffee chain features the two National Hockey League stars, slinging coffees and doughnuts. Terribly. “We were struggling,” MacKinnon said on Thursday following the Colorado Avalanche morning skate.
“It was just funny. Some of the orders we had. We were definitely struggling on the microphone.”
The commercials were filmed over three hours in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, where both players are from.
And, for the customers’ sake, the pair only took orders and didn’t actually have to pour coffee, butter bagels, or assemble breakfast sandwiches.
“People were pretty surprised to see us,” MacKinnon said.
“It was fun. It was obviously staged. We were back in Cole Harbour, a pretty small area. Sid worked the drive thru and it was pretty cool. The fans were going crazy.
“I think I was there just to keep Sid loose.”
Now, it’s up to Calvin Pickard to grab it.
Last week, Patrick Roy declared the backup goaltender’s position wide open which means, right now, every day is an audition for the former Seattle Thunderbird.
“I had a chance to play quite a few games last year,” said Pickard. “Coming into camp this year, I feel more confident being around everybody. The staff, the teammates here, it makes me feel good going on the ice. I have confidence from the coaching staff.”
Early last season, Pickard received a call- up to backup Reto Berra when starter Semyon Varlamov went down with an injury.
He was thrown into the fire early, playing his first NHL game on Oct. 16 after Berra, the former Calgary Flames netminder, was hurt on the road in Ottawa. Pickard stepped on enemy ice and turned aside 23 of 27 shots in a 6- 5 loss.
“It was such a whirlwind,” he recalled. “( Erik) Karlsson was taking a shot about two seconds in. No time to think, I just kind of got out there and played. Pretty fun.”
Playing in 16 games ( and 50 with the American Hockey League’s Lake Erie Monsters), he impressed and put together a 2.35 goals against average an .932 save percentage.
However, after being sent back and forth between the NHL and AHL, he’s hoping to earn a fulltime backup job, ironically battling Berra for the position.
“There’s definitely an opportunity here,” said the Winnipeg native, who is on a two- way contract.
“But I can’t really worry about what the competition is. ( I just have to) do my best. I need to work hard each and every day and let everyone else take care of the decisions.”