Penguins Discover Charms of Nova Scotia with Sidney Crosby as Tour Guide

Ever since the team landed in Halifax on Friday ahead of the Nova Scotia Showdown this Monday, Sidney Crosby has gone above and beyond to make sure his teammates have a terrific experience in his native Nova Scotia.

The Cole Harbour native spearheaded the organization of team bonding activities with the sort of thoughtfulness and attention to detail that makes him an unparalleled leader, recruiting his family and friends to assist in those endeavors. For example, once or twice during the season, Crosby bakes everyone a mini loaf of banana bread and leaves them in their lockers, all nicely packaged up. “He’s a little Suzy Homemaker,” Bryan Rust joked. “It’s actually really good.”

This time around, Sidney’s mom Trina handled the baking, with that homemade banana bread included in the goodie bags the Crosbys had waiting in each player’s hotel room upon arrival. “It was really important to their family,” said Paul Mason, Sidney’s coach in both youth hockey and baseball who is a close family friend.

The guys haven’t seen much of their hotel rooms since, as they’ve been busy with activities ever since.

“These trips, I think, are really good for teams - especially for the new guys,” forward Noel Acciari said after practice on Sunday. “Just getting that bond early is good, and Sid and his family doing what they did throughout yesterday was unbelievable. To get to experience the area in his eyes – definitely tried some new things – it was a lot of fun.”

On Friday night, the Penguins had a team dinner at the Bicycle Thief before hitting the golf course early Saturday morning, playing the Links at Brunello. On Saturday afternoon, Crosby worked with his family and Mason to organize an Amazing Race-style scavenger hunt, though as Reilly Smith said with a smile, “I don't think it was actually a race. It was just, see the places Sid wants you to see. So, everyone had a good time. It was nice to see some of the history.”

These were some of the stops:

• Shuck two oysters and eat them. “I like oysters, so to get to learn how to do it was pretty interesting,” Kris Letang said.
• Try haggis (the national dish of Scotland,) at the Old Triangle Irish Alehouse. “I was a little nervous at first,” Acciari admitted with a smile. “We were looking it up while we were waiting for it. It wasn’t bad – it was pretty good.” However, Ryan Graves - who’s from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia - wasn’t quite as on board. “Even though I’m a local, I’m not sure about that one,” he laughed.
• Run up the hill at the Halifax Citadel, which is part of Crosby’s offseason training, before going inside and shooting pucks into a dryer, just like Sidney famously did as a kid.
• Tie a bowline knot at the Maritime Museum – “If they've never fished, they’re not used to doing that,” Mason chuckled – and then take a selfie with the CSS Acadia boat docked right outside.
• Find Alexander Keith’s burial ground and visit his brewery, founded in 1820, carrying a keg of beer from one part of the establishment to another. “We got some good team bonding through Alexander Keith,” Smith said.
• Make Donairs, a gyro with a special sauce unique to the region.
• Go axe throwing.

Crosby joked that he was definitely feeling the pressure when it came to showing everyone around, saying that he wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed their time in his home province and truly experienced Halifax, which is about 20 minutes from Cole Harbour.

“You could see how excited he was,” Rust said. “I don’t think I’ve seen him that happy all too many times. You saw how much it meant to him to kind of show us where he’s from, and have his family experience it with us.”

Crosby’s family members and friends were among the people stationed at each area to help facilitate the activities, and they had a blast getting to engage and interact with his teammates, which the guys loved. They truly appreciated the opportunity to get to know Crosby even better.

“I'm really proud of my home and what it has to offer, and the people here,” Crosby said. “So, I think that it was nice that everyone who helped out, a lot of those people I know. For them to get to interact with the guys was great, and then also, all the different spots that guys got to go to – hopefully, they got a little sense of the place here, and got to do some cool things.”