TORONTO -- Whenever Sidney Crosby gets asked about his legacy, especially when it comes to the international stage, he impressively stick-handles around the topic like he does to avoid opponents on the ice.
His Team Canada peers, however, do not.
“He’s Captain Canada,” Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said.
With good reason.
The 37-year-old is one of the most decorated players to ever wear a Canada jersey, if not the most. The native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, has won gold medals with Canada at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Championship in North Dakota and Minnesota, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the 2015 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic, and also captained his country to the title at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto.
The most remarkable stat to come from all those titles: Canada has won 25 straight games in tournament play with Crosby in the lineup, having not lost in 5,461 days, since a 5-3 loss to the United States in the preliminary rounds of the Vancouver Games on Feb. 21, 2010.
As impressive as that is, don’t expect the Pittsburgh Penguins center to start beating his chest and talking about all those personal accomplishments. That’s not going to happen. That’s not his way.
“I think when you put on that jersey, you think about team first,” Crosby said Friday, one day after being named captain for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off. “And you think about representing your country.”
For Crosby, a longtime student of the game, that means thinking about the history and tradition of Team Canada.
It means thinking about the unforgettable moments like Paul Henderson’s goal with 34 seconds remaining in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union that gave Canada a 6-5 victory and a 4-3-1 win in the series.
And about Mario Lemieux’s magical goal off a pass from Wayne Gretzky with 1:26 remaining in the third and deciding game to give Canada a 6-5 victory against the Soviets to win the best-of-3 final of the 1987 Canada Cup.
Legendary memories both.
But for him, there’s more.
“Those goals you mentioned are one thing that comes to mind,” he said. “There’s the teams you grew up watching and the great players that have played for Team Canada.
“But I think the biggest strength of Canada has always been their ability to play as a group. And there’s no doubt that when you collect a lot of great players and put them together, you’ve got to find a way to come together. I just think Canadian teams have shown that’s a strength of theirs and something any team that wants to have success needs to do.
“So when you think about playing for Canada, it’s about the team aspect and the ability to play as a group and find a way to win.”