HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Sidney Crosby has no shortage of memories centered on Scotiabank Centre, located in the heart of downtown Halifax.
The arena, just 11 miles down the road from his hometown of Cole Harbour, is home to the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads. He played there as an opponent for two years, lighting up the league with the Rimouski Oceanic before being drafted No. 1 overall by the Penguins in 2005. But some of the memories that stand out the most happened before Crosby ever stepped foot on the ice in that building.
As a kid, Crosby would help out local equipment manager Lionel Jackson, who worked the locker rooms for visiting AHL and QMJHL teams since the 1970s and passed away in 2012. He'd practice at the nearby Cole Harbour Place rink, "just dreaming of playing in the NHL," as he put it.
When he took the ice on Monday evening, it was as an NHL veteran and the captain of "your Pittsburgh Penguins," as the P.A. announcer appropriately referred to them. This was a home game for Crosby, but it might as well have been a home game for the team, too. The stands were packed with over 10,500 fans, many of whom were wearing black and gold No. 87 sweaters.
The applause was deafening when Crosby was announced as a member of the starting lineup, and only grew louder as he raised his stick in a salute to the crowd:
It was quite the change of pace for Crosby in this building. Even though he was the local kid, he was used to the Mooseheads fans booing him when he was with the Oceanic.
"I've been on the other side of it playing with Rimouski against the Mooseheads, and it wasn't always as welcoming," he said of that moment with a big smile on his face after the game. "I tried to soak it in tonight. It was nice. I can't thank them enough for the reception and just the atmosphere, the game, the environment. It all was pretty special, hopefully for everybody. That was part of it."
It would have been a little too perfect if the Penguins came away with the win, and Crosby had some classic Sid-like backhand goal to win it. Nothing like that happened tonight. The Penguins lost, 3-0. They went 0 for 6 on the power play. Joonas Korpisalo turned away all 40 of the Penguins' shots.
"(Crosby) was happy before, but after the game I think he's a little bit mad," Malkin said. "He wants to win here, for sure. He wanted to score. We tried to do our best, we wanted to do our best, but it's OK. I hope he had a great time. We all had a great time here."
Malkin said that Crosby gave a great speech in the locker room afterward, so I asked Crosby what he said to his teammates.
"I just thanked them," he said. "I know it's training camp, and I know it's pretty busy. There's a lot going on. But I thought that whether it was from my family, or everybody here, I just wanted to tell them thank you."
This game had been in the works for quite some time. The Penguins reached out to Events East Group, Scotiabank Centre's managing group, about a year ago just to inquire whether they would be interested in hosting a preseason game.
"Of course, we jumped at the chance of hosting an NHL preseason game," said Events East Group executive vice president Suzanne Fougere when I sat down with her Monday morning. "It's something we do every few years and it's a pretty big event for the city. But this time to have Sidney Crosby here and the whole Pittsburgh Penguins organization, it's a pretty special time for the city and the province. It's been really well-received by the community."
Hosting hockey games is what Scotiabank Centre does, so the logistics weren't too much of a challenge. It's the home arena of the Halifax Mooseheads, and it was recently one of two arenas to joint-host the 2023 World Junior Championship. The local superstar coming home for his first game there in 17 years is something completely different, though.
"What's different with this event, of course, is he's really an icon in our community," Fougere said. "So the level of enthusiasm and excitement for him to be here is a different kind of challenge. Having a team like that and somebody with that stature in the community, that's a different level of expectation that everybody has."
Demand for tickets was through the roof, with all tickets being snatched up within a matter of hours.
"With something like this, the demand far exceeded the inventory," Fougere continued. "There's still people looking for tickets today, and I'm sure you'll see people all over the place this afternoon hoping to get a glimpse and hoping just to a be part of it, whether they can get in the building or not. But demand was very high."
Resale ticket prices were exceptionally high on Monday afternoon, especially for an NHL preseason game. The cheapest tickets left on Ticketmaster were upper-level listed for $300 (U.S.). Seats closer to the ice for listed for over $700. Looking over on Stubhub, the cheapest tickets at the same time were some $460 upper-level seats.
Stubhub also shows you resale tickets that people actually bought, and people were paying those inflated resale prices for the opportunity to see Crosby. Lower-bowl seats were sold Sunday for $380 and $470.
Even before the game, the city was buzzing with excitement for days leading up to this. It wasn't uncommon to see fans in Penguins or Crosby's Team Canada jerseys around the city. Fans were lined up in the morning outside of the arena, just hoping for the chance to get a glimpse of the team bus at it came in for the morning skate. And of course, Crosby and the team practice in Cole Harbour on Sunday, and then split up for work in the community afterward, highlighted by a youth clinic at Crosby's old home rink.
"It's been pretty vibrant and exciting the past couple of days," Fougere told me. "It's been really special to see how the community has welcomed him home, but also how proud he's been to showcase the community to his team. When you see them all over the city, all over Cole Harbour, it's pretty special to be a Nova Scotian and get to take part in that."
That youth clinic seemed to be the most meaningful part of the trip for the players, coaches, and community. Everyone was clearly enjoying themselves, and it was the kind of thing that can really make an impact on those kids.
Ryan Graves is a fellow Nova Scotian -- about four hours away, in a small town called Yarmouth. Being 28 years old, he's young enough to have grown up watching Crosby, and he knows what it means to have someone of his stature be from your home province, and how that can serve as inspiration for younger players.
"I think I'm one of the first generations that really got to look up to Sid," Graves told me before the trip. "We got to watch him when he first broke into the NHL and how cool that was. There were some guys that played in the NHL before him, but he's really the first one to really break through and be a star, and for him to be the first one that is also probably the best player in the game for so many years. People there just idolize him. What he's done for the community, and for kids growing up, just the way he's paved the way for them is awesome. People idolize him."
Crosby and the Penguins played a preseason game in this building before. It was Sept. 19, 2006, and it was the preseason opener for the Penguins against the Senators before a 19-year-old Crosby's sophomore NHL season. 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.
"I remember it being a good trip," Crosby said Monday of that first game here as an NHL player.
This time was different, and not just because Crosby is now a veteran preparing for his 19th NHL season. When the Penguins were in Halifax back in 2006, it was quick. The team had first spent a couple of days in Moncton, New Brunswick and were only briefly in Halifax for the game. This time, the Penguins spent three and a half days in Halifax as part of the experience.
Crosby said that he was "definitely feeling the pressure" of this trip, and that pressure happened well before the game. He wanted to be able to squeeze in as much sightseeing as he could for his teammates in only a couple of days, and he was really hoping that they would like it. He laughed Thursday before the trip, saying that he "pumped (the city) up pretty good" for the guys.
Much of the sightseeing was accomplished on Saturday through a scavenger hunt designed by Crosby's family and former coaches, designed to take players on a tour of the city that showed them the best Halifax had to offer. Players especially liked learning how to shuck oysters and visiting the local Alexander Keith's brewery. They were treated to some classic Maritime hospitality too. There were gift bags ready and left in each player's hotel room with goodies like fresh banana bread baked by Crosby's mother Trina, and matching ties for game day from Crosby himself in a Nova Scotian tartan print.
The pressure was eased a bit for Crosby -- his teammates loved the experience as he had hoped.
"It's kind of crazy," Rickard Rakell said of being in Crosby's hometown. "You had only ever heard about it before. But to see it here now for real? You understand the hype. It's pretty special."
Malkin said that he had a "great time."
"I want to say 'thank you' to Sid of course, and his family," Malkin said. "It's nice people around, you know? So proud tonight. I want to say thank you to the fans, for sure. ... It's a small town, great people. Great restaurants. Great beer, for sure. People love hockey here. You see lots of young kids, they love Sid so much. It's amazing to see how happy people are. We had a nice couple of dinners together."
Malkin said that he "so enjoyed" the youth clinic he helped with on Sunday in particular.
"I saw how the kids were excited," he said. "It's the same with me. I remember myself when I was growing up, it was like when I look at some superstar I'm always smiling and happy. I hope some of these kids will be a superstar like him in the future."
There's no doubt that these few days here in Halifax left an impact -- on Crosby, his teammates, his community, and the future generation, too. It was a pretty special way to bring the team together before the season gets underway.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Scotiabank Centre:
1. Joonas Korpisalo, Senators G
2. Brady Tkachuk, Senators LW
3. Sidney Crosby, Penguins C
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Mark Pysyk is out "longer-term" with a lower-body injury. Sullivan last week wasn't sure how the injury would affect Pysyk's future with the Penguins, given that he is on a professional tryout contract.
• Forward Jake Guentzel is sidelined after having right ankle surgery to repair an issue sustained late last season. He is expected to miss somewhere around five games to start the season and has resumed skating with the team in a non-contact capacity.
• Defenseman Will Butcher is sidelined with an undisclosed injury. He is skating on his own.
• Forward Raivis Ansons is dealing with an upper-body injury sustained in the last month of the AHL season. He has resumed skating with the depth players remaining in camp.
• Defenseman Owen Pickering is dealing with a lower-body injury (believed to be an ankle injury) sustained during offseason training. He has resumed skating with the depth players remaining in camp.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Radim Zohorna
Drew O'Connor - Lars Eller - Vinnie Hinostroza
Matt Nieto - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter
Ryan Graves - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
P.O Joseph - Ryan Shea
And for D.J. Smith's Senators:
Brady Tkachuk - Tim Stutzle - Claude Giroux
Vladimir Tarasenko - Ridly Greig - Drake Batherson
Dominik Kubalik - Rourke Chartier - Mathieu Joseph
Matthew Highmore - Zack Ostapchuk - Zack Macewen
Jakob Chychrun - Thomas Chabot
Jake Sanderson - Artem Zub
Erik Brannstrom - Travis Hamonic
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins were scheduled to fly back to Pittsburgh tonight and will practice in Cranberry at noon Tuesday. Next game is Wednesday against the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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