HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Sidney Crosby was 19 years old the last time he played in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
It was Sept. 19, 2006, and it was the preseason opener for the Penguins against the Senators at the Halifax Metro Centre, now known as the Scotiabank Centre. Crosby was only two years removed from being the enemy in that building, a rival of the Halifax Mooseheads when he was lighting up the QMJHL with the Rimouski Oceanic.
When Crosby returned home to play for the first time as a professional hockey player, he was the hometown hero, met with a rousing ovation from the sold-out crowd. The Penguins lost 5-2 to the Senators that night, and Crosby was a factor on both goals. He scored one of his own, then earned an assist on a goal by Stephen Dixon, a Halifax product who never panned out as a Penguins prospect.
Now 17 years later, Crosby will get an opportunity to play in front of his hometown crowd once more when the Penguins and Senators play a preseason game at the Scotiabank Centre on Monday evening.
"I didn't ever expect to have this opportunity," Crosby told me in a chat about the game earlier in the week. "A lot of people are excited. They've been through a lot of NHL games, usually maybe once a year, there's teams that go there for camp or something. Everyone's excited. I have a lot of friends and family that that will be happy, and it'd be good to spend a few days there with the guys."
Crosby seemed almost overwhelmed when I asked him what he had planned for his teammates as their official tour guide. There was so much he wanted them to see, and not enough time. The Penguins flew to Halifax on Friday after practice and had a full day off on Saturday, so they had some time to sightsee before getting back to work for practice on Sunday.
The team went out to dinner at some of Crosby's favorite local spots on Friday and Saturday night, and had a full day of activities planned for Saturday during the day. They went golfing in the morning, then broke into a groups for a scavenger hunt around Halifax that had them learning how to tie knots and sample some of the local beers.
PENGUINS / TWITTER
Magnus Hellberg, Mark Friedman, Ryan Graves, P.O Joseph
EVGENI MALKIN / INSTAGRAM
Tristan Jarry, Bryan Rust, Drew O'Connor, Vinnie Hinostroza, Evgeni Malkin
Fittingly, the scavenger hunt also took the players to a dryer, which Evgeni Malkin posed with -- while wearing his custom "Sid" hat rather than the "Geno" one for the occasion. Malkin captioned the picture "the most famous washing machine in Canada #87," clearly in awe of such a historic landmark:
Evgeni Malkin / Instagram
Now, that's not the original famous Crosby Family dryer. That first dryer is on display in the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame here in Halifax. The dryer used to sit in Crosby's basement behind his net, and he'd often ding and dent up the dryer when he'd miss a shot -- no, he was not shooting into the dryer for target practice as one common misconception goes.
The Penguins have made good use of their time here so far. Crosby told me earlier in the week that his hopes were to just "show them as many of the sights as possible" and use the experience for team-building.
"We've got a lot of new faces, so it's good to get together," he said. "It's going to be weird, I'm not going to lie (laughs). I'm not used to having the whole group at home. It's really cool, though, and I'm excited for it."
The Penguins will head to Crosby's childhood rink in Cole Harbour for practice on Sunday. It'll surely be another full-circle for moment for Crosby, practicing as an NHL veteran, superstar and captain on the ice where he once learned how to play hockey.
