Following the
Penguins' 7-2 win against the New York Rangers
, when Crosby had a goal and an assist to extend his streak of multiple-point games to an NHL career-high five, he had a team trainer deliver a signed and personalized stick to Nick Lipeika, a 31-year-old firefighter from Norwalk, Connecticut. Lipeika sat by the glass near the penalty box in Section 11W, Row AA and heckled Crosby throughout the game.
"GOOD CHIRPS TAKE IT EASY ON ME NEXT TIME!" Crosby wrote on the stick.
"It was a unique, New York experience," Crosby said. "He got the section going and it was all in good taste. It doesn't happen too often like that and it gave me a good laugh. I thought I'd let him know I appreciated his efforts."
Lipeika, who was at the game with three of his friends, said he was blown away by Crosby's gesture and it gave him a new appreciation for the Penguins captain.
"Oh God, a hundred percent," Lipeika said. "His hope is that the Penguins fans do the same to whoever comes into their building, their arena. It's easy to hate the good players that aren't on your team, so I have never been a Crosby fan mainly because he plays really well and he plays really well against us. It's hard to like him, but talk about a class act, a real just ambassador to the sport. It was such a great experience and I'm just the lucky guy that was on the right end of the stick, no pun intended, I guess."
Lipeika said his heckling was all in good fun. He was happy that Crosby took it that way too.
"We like heckling with each other, so being a good Ranger fan you just want to heckle anyone on their team," Lipeika said.
It started when Crosby went to the penalty box for tripping 2:55 into the first period.
"He's there and it's like, what do you say to him now?" Lipeika said. "I just wanted to hit him with anything he's never heard before."