Sidney Crosby has been under pressure his whole life. When you grant your first interview at age 7, become arguably the most hyped player in your sport’s history, and then live up to all of that hype, pressure is a given.
A different type of pressure awaits Crosby in Milan.
The captain of Team Canada is familiar with the Olympics and with the rigors of best-on-best international play. This time, his third Games after winning gold in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014, may feel different for Crosby, though, because the pressure isn’t solely rooted in winning another gold medal. This time carries the added weight that these could be his final Olympics.
In addition to the Olympics, Crosby has played in two more best-on-best tournaments: last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Canada has won all four tournaments. Crosby was the captain in the three most recent events and won MVP at the World Cup of Hockey. In 2010, the only time Crosby wasn’t captain of Team Canada, he scored the golden goal on Canadian soil at 22.
The 38-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins captain has always handled pressure with a seemingly innate knowing and calm.
How?
“At this point in my career, I’ve learned to draw on my own experiences,” Crosby recently told The Athletic. “That’s the way I look at it. It’s a trust thing. Do you trust your game? Do you trust all the work you’ve put in? I trust my game, and what I need to do, and what I believe in. So, when you can say that, I think it helps you deal with all the pressure.”
Crosby is widely considered to be among the greatest captains in hockey history. As a youth player, he was never captain of his teams because he typically played with older groups due to his advanced talent. The captaincy in Pittsburgh, though, quickly became a perfect fit. So, too, did the captaincy of his homeland.
His philosophy on his leadership and the Olympic success that has accompanied it is classic Crosby.
“For me, the biggest thing is always to remember that it’s a team sport,” he explained. “Hockey isn’t supposed to be about just one person or anything like that. It’s a team sport. You’re supposed to help each other. That’s what I’ve always believed, and I think that’s what works best. It’s a lot easier to play the game the way you want to play it, and to have success as a team, and to win together, if everyone is on the same page and working together as a team. That’s the way I’ve always looked at it, and that’s what’s always worked best for us in the past.”
Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia natives Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon are close friends and Team Canada teammates. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Crosby’s Penguins and Canadian teammates alike have long appreciated his approach.
“Sid just wants to win,” said Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, Crosby’s close friend and Team Canada teammate. “He always leads the way, and he leads the way the right way. You just follow him.”
Even those who have been Crosby’s teammates for a matter of days are impressed by the team-first philosophy that, by all accounts, is completely authentic and sincere. Brett Kulak, Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers teammate before a December trade sent him to Pittsburgh, is already in awe of Crosby as a captain.
“You have to appreciate him and all that he does,” Kulak said. “We all deal with pressure and stress that revolves around the game and wanting to win. But I can’t even imagine how much he has on his plate, that he’s able to process mentally. That’s one of the things that separates him. Another thing that separates him is his ability to be successful under pressure and in stressful situations.”
Crosby also has a rare ability to relate with everyone in a locker room and to make the pressure seem a little less daunting.
Kulak said Crosby is unlike anyone he’s ever been around.
“That’s the thing,” Kulak said. “You know who he is, but he just always puts everyone in the locker room before himself. That’s the thing about him that you notice right away. He always puts everyone else first.”
Crosby, in his 21st NHL season, is having a typically outstanding campaign. His 59 points in 56 games put him ahead of a point-per-game pace, which he’s accomplished in every other season of his career en route to breaking a Wayne Gretzky league record. His Penguins are making an unexpected romp toward the Stanley Cup playoffs in a season they were expected to finish near the bottom of the NHL standings.
Still, the expectations in Canada over the next two-plus weeks are sky-high — but it’s nothing he hasn’t experienced before.
“More than anything, I’m just trying to find balance with my game and with how I handle my time and everything else,” Crosby said. “I’m excited. But I also want my game to be in a good place going into the Olympics. You want to be playing well.”
Crosby has only two points in his past six games, an oddly quiet stretch that he’s highly aware of. He doesn’t seem terribly concerned, though, and believes the production will come.
“I’ve been preparing for it,” he said. “It’s going to be a busy few days, even before our first game in the Olympics (on Thursday). A very busy few days. So I have to keep balancing that stuff. The physical work, that preparation, it’s already done. At this point, it’s getting everything else ready on the mental side of things, planning your schedule.”
Even though Crosby’s most recent Olympics came a dozen years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic and governing body disputes, he believes he can rely on his previous experiences.
“I had a great time in Vancouver and Sochi, just incredible memories and accomplishments for us as a team,” he said. “And from what I’ve heard from people who are already over there (in Milan), it’s beautiful and things are going really great. So, to get to go one more time? I just look at it as a great opportunity more than anything. You never know when you’re going to get to go again.”
At Crosby’s age, he realizes this could be his last Olympics, though he’s never said it. He would be 42 at the next Winter Olympics, 2030 in the French Alps. If this is his final time on the biggest international stage, he’d like it to be memorable — and he’d like to keep that record unblemished.
Pressure?
“You can look at it that way,” Crosby said.
“I just can’t wait to get there, to be a part of it, to be surrounded by other Olympians.”
A third gold medal?
“It would mean everything,” he said.