Crosby relishing All-Star time, 'cool' moment with Ovechkin's son

SUNRISE, FLA. -- Sidney Crosby said that he's "always appreciated" the opportunity to be in All-Star Games.

Those appearances haven't happened too often.

This is Crosby's 18th season in the league, and this is only his fifth time appearing in an All-Star Game. Some of those 18 seasons haven't had All-Star Games, whether it be due to a lockout, COVID, or Olympic years, and other years Crosby has been injured at the time rosters were selected.. Crosby has been selected for rosters for eight All-Star Games before this year, but had to withdraw from half of them due to injuries.

He's 35 now. He's not the kid who made his All-Star debut in 2007 anymore. While he's appreciative to attend an event like this one anytime he can, it means a little more to Crosby as he gets older. He doesn't know how many more of these opportunities he might have left.

"I'd like to think that every time I went I appreciated it and tried to make the most of it," Crosby said after Friday's skills competition at the Panthers' FLA Live Arena. "But you understand as you get older that you don't know how many more you'll be a part of. I think you just try to enjoy them. That's how I approach it."

Crosby didn't fare quite as well well in the first skills event he participated in -- the Splash Shot, an event unique to this year. Players had to shoot at surfboard targets on the beach, with the last target being one that would sink an opponent into a dunk tank. He didn't get the opportunity to shoot any pucks himself, as he served as the player in the dunk tank while his partner Nathan MacKinnon was the shooter. Crosby got dunked by Mikko Rantanen, while MacKinnon only managed to knock down one of his targets.

"The dunk tank didn't go as planned," Crosby said with a little smile. "I think there was a little malfunction there. You have to ask Nate about it. He was hitting boards and they weren't going down, so I felt bad for him."

Crosby was the one to lobby to be involved in the event. It was new and sounded interesting, it gave him the chance to go to the beach, and he had never been in a dunk tank before. He was also the one to decide to be in the tank instead of shooting, a strategic move so he could be the one shooting had he and MacKinnon advanced to the final round. He figured out pretty quickly that the pair wouldn't be making it that far, though.

"I knew I was in trouble when Rantanen went three-for-three on those first three shots," Crosby said. "I knew I was going to get wet."

The big highlights of these events for Crosby aren't so much the skills events themselves -- though he is a big fan of watching the Fastest Skater and Hardest Shot events. He relishes the opportunity to get to see his usual opponents up close and be able to appreciate what they can do in a setting like this, and also take some time to get to know some of the newer players in the league and catch up from more long-standing adversaries.

The longest-standing adversary Crosby has in his career is Alex Ovechkin, after the two came into the league together in 2005-06. They're older now -- Crosby is starting to get a little salt and pepper in his hair, and Ovechkin is all salt, no pepper. What once was a heated rivalry has evolved into more of a mutual respect and genuine friendship between the two. 

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Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin at the skills competition Friday in Sunrise, Fla.

There's no better time for the two to come together than an event like this.

Crosby teamed up with Ovechkin in the Breakaway Challenge, the event in which players compete to score the most creative breakaway goal. Crosby and Ovechkin first met at center ice with host P.K. Subban, who had both players sign an All-Star Game jersey. Crosby said that they needed one more signature on the jersey, and called Ovechkin's four-year-old son Sergei onto the ice. All three of them -- Crosby, Ovechkin, and his son -- then took the breakaway together, passing back and forth. Sergei took the final shot on guest goaltender Roberto Luongo, and beat Luongo five-hole:

The judges gave it perfect 10s across the board, giving them the co-win in the event.

"It was nice to be a part of it," Crosby said afterward of the moment. "It's nice to have his son be a part of it and have Lu in there too, it's nice to see him out there. I thought I was done shooting against him. It's fun to share that moment, and I know his son loves the game. It's cool to see him out there."

Crosby and Ovechkin are the two oldest players in this All-Star weekend. A number of the younger players here have spoken about how special it is to be able to share this ice with those two specifically. They remember being young kids themselves and watching Crosby and Ovechkin participate in All-Star events.

Crosby doesn't take those comments lightly.

"It means a lot," Crosby said. "I would think that if you asked (Ovechkin) the same thing, we'd tell you that we were young players and coming in, there were older guys that we felt the same way about. I think even though that you've been in the league for awhile, you appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with guys. As much as it's tough competing against a lot of the players here, you appreciate the chance to meet them personally and see them up close."

The All-Star weekend continues Saturday with a 3 p.m. three-on-three tournament as in years past. While the effort level in the skills competition events was a little suspect from some players, that's  not going to be the case on Saturday. Guys want to win, and Crosby is expecting a competitive finish to this weekend.

"You can see as the game goes on that it gets a little more intense," he said. "Guys get more comfortable."

Before that, Crosby will probably take a little more time to himself to relish the experience and his time in the South Florida sun. He's certainly making the most of his time here. 

"It was hard to be here, I didn't want to leave the pool today," Crosby said with a big smile. "The weather was pretty good. I was trying to get the bus pushed back a bit."

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Sidney Crosby's All-Star nameplate in Sunrise, Fla.

MORE FROM THE SKILLS COMPETITION

• This whole night had such a bizarre format that it was almost unwatchable. They ran through part of Fastest Skater and determined the final two before moving onto a single shooter in the Breakaway Challenge before moving onto the incredibly convoluted "Tendy Tandem" event. Splash Shooter was paused halfway through to run the Accuracy Shooting, which was then paused for a few more events. This was the most poorly-run one of these that I can remember. Instead of the format holding viewers' interest for the three-plus hours of the event, it just made everything more annoying to follow.

• Andrei Svechnikov (13.699 seconds) won Fastest Skater, with Kevin Fiala (14.114 seconds) being the runner up. Cale Makar went first and wiped out while making a turn, an omen to how the rest of the skills competition would go:

• The Central Division's Juuse Saros and Connor Hellebuyck won the Tendy Tandem event, which had some complicated scoring system that involved goaltenders both taking shots and making saves, with different parts of the event worth a different number of points. This tweet sums it up perfectly:

 The highlight was this goal Team Canada's Sarah Nurse scored on Igor Shesterkin:

"I thought, full-send, why not?" Nurse said afterward. "I did get a text from one of his assistant coaches though, who was like, 'Why'd you have to do him like that?!''

A reporter noted to Nurse that it was a "top-3 goalie in the world" that she scored on. Team USA's Hilary Knight, who was sitting beside Nurse, interjected -- "She's a top scorer." Love it.

Crosby brought up Nurse's goal on his own, he was impressed: "Her hands were pretty good on that deke. I didn't see that one coming."

• Rantanen and Makar won the Splash Shot, the dunk tank challenge.

• The Accuracy Shooting challenge was broken up into two segments -- a preliminary round followed by a semifinal and final with the players with the best times from the first round. Connor McDavid had an insane showing in the first round, going four-for-four in 9.497. He lost in the final round to Nazem Kadri, though he still went four-for-four.

• Elias Pettersson won hardest shot with a 103.2 mile-per-hour shot. Ovechkin (who won the event last year) joked that he thought Pettersson was cheating, alluding to his lankier frame: “If you look at him, I don’t think he... Nah, I'm joking."

• Montreal's Nick Suzuki won the Pitch 'N Puck golf/hockey combo event that had players hitting pucks and golf balls with hockey sticks. The event came with the reward of free Chipotle for a year. Suzuki said afterward that Montreal doesn't even have a Chipotle. I looked it up, Chipotle only has 32 locations in all of Canada and 22 of them are in Ontario. Great reward for a league that has seven teams in Canada and a large number of Canadian players.

• When the pre-recorded golf and dunk tank events were airing on the broadcast, nothing was really happening in-arena. The events were shown on the videoboard and players just kind of hung out, chatting. Crosby and Nurse chatted for the entirety of the golf event, and I asked Nurse after what they were talking about. "We talked a lot about international competition, him representing Canada. He's been able to do it so many times. We were talking about how he wants to do it again, talking about how everybody wants to play with McDavid and MacKinnon in international competition. We would love to go to an event with him, go to the Olympics with those guys."

• Crosby enjoyed watching the women mixing in for some of the events: "It was nice. It's always great to see them. We've had some Rivalry (U.S.-Canada) games in Pittsburgh and cross paths a lot, so it's always good whether it's events like this or Rivalry games or charity events. I really enjoyed catching up and seeing everyone. We follow as much as we can."

• The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association and Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the NWHL) are somewhat at odds, with the PWHPA looking to form their own league because they aren't satisfied with the PHF as a top women's professional league. The PHF has made a lot of strides recently in securing new sponsorships and raising the salary cap. Knight (who is in the PWHPA, along with the other women's players in attendance here) was asked about the progress the PHF has made and had a good answer: "A rising tide lifts all ships. It's wonderful that there are more opportunities and greater compensation for women. There's a huge pay gap, and we all understand that. But we're ecstatic with what we have going on with the PWHPA. I think the future for women's hockey at an elite level is extremely bright."

• Everyone wore their Reverse Retro jerseys for this. The Penguins are done wearing theirs for the year, so this might be the last we see of the pigeon logo for awhile. They went 6-2-1 in them.

• Between the time rosters were selected and this weekend, Bo Horvat was traded from the Canucks to the Islanders. The NHL resolved the matter by still having him represent the Pacific Division, but wearing Islanders gear.

• The Panthers' own in-arena host butchered Claude Giroux's first AND last name in a trivia question during a break. He played here just last season. Very serious hockey market.

• Ovechkin's son Sergei also took warmups, he was the only kid to do so. Pretty cute. He wore a matching No. 8 jersey with his dad, and took shots on Sorokin in net while his dad recorded with his phone. Sorokin would slowly dive out of the way so Sergei could score. Between that and the breakaway challenge, it sure feels like we were robbed of a potential cool moment by Evgeni Malkin not making the game.

• Expect the host of the 2024 NHL All-Star Game to be announced tomorrow. It's not Pittsburgh, I can tell you that much.

• This is better than anything that happened at the skills competition. If I'm organizing the event next year I'm scrapping at least two skills events in favor of more hand-to-hand combat between mascots:

• As usual, press box snack update: Some flat-out bad cookies, plus popcorn, chips, and a collection of assorted candy that looked like someone just brought in their leftover Halloween candy. This gets a B-. The pregame media meal was free and had mini cupcakes, so you can't be too hard on what they have upstairs. Better than the grits (yes, grits) they gave us last year in Vegas.