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<\/p>\nBrad Marchand remembers the first time he set eyes on Sidney Crosby. He was nine years old and Marchand\u2019s dad took him to Cole Harbour Place, an arena 20 minutes east of downtown Halifax, to watch the kid who was fast becoming a local legend. <\/p>\n
Marchand, who grew up a few minutes away in Dartmouth, was a year younger, undersized and a below-average skater. But because Crosby\u2019s talent always had him playing among older age groups, Marchand\u2019s dad thought Brad could learn from watching how Crosby managed against much bigger players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he would kind of spread his legs to shield pucks against a group of guys, that\u2019s what my dad wanted to me to see,\u201d Marchand said, recalling how Crosby\u2019s habits left an imprint.<\/p>\n
It was the beginning of one of the most remarkable talent factories Canadian hockey has ever seen. Home to Crosby, Marchand and Nathan MacKinnon, the greater Halifax area has somehow produced three future NHL hall of famers in a single generation, racking up six Stanley Cups between them. It is an outlandish amount of prowess from a relatively compact area. If you drove between all three of their houses growing up, Marchand figures you could do the round trip in under 25 minutes. \u201cIt\u2019s not far.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brad Marchand, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, at Milan\u2019s Santagiulia arena last week, grew up within minutes of each other and gathered in the Halifax area this summer to train for the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images; Marton Monus\/Reuters<\/p>\n
This offseason, the trio gathered back home to train, something they do most summers. But these workouts came with an added edge as they prepared for the Milan Olympics.<\/a> What took place on the ice would never be mistaken for a typical summertime game of shinny. It was physical, vocal, aggressive and relentless. <\/p>\n But if Canada<\/a> is to win gold in Milan \u2013 after narrowly defeating the United States in overtime at last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off \u2013 the road to victory will, in part, run through Cole Harbour and Dartmouth, drawing on what Marchand said is a work ethic that only comes from growing up there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really take a lot of pride in the fact that we\u2019re gritty in the way that we do things, and kind of muck it up,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cAnd that never gets lost on us; even just the way we go after each other, chirp each other, and stuff like that. We\u2019re just trying to keep each other humble and grounded and make sure we don\u2019t get ahead of ourselves ever. But it all stems from pride and being where we\u2019re from.\u201d<\/p>\n Crosby and MacKinnon both seemed touched by the hockey gods at an early age, but Marchand was never the best player on any of his teams growing up. What he did have, he said, was an internal fire. As a teenager, if a teammate texted him at the end of the night and said he\u2019d shot 500 pucks that day, Marchand wouldn\u2019t think twice.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re in bed and you\u2019d have to go downstairs and shoot 500 pucks to beat him, so that you weren\u2019t doing less. Everything was a competition, every single day: who was doing the most? Who was getting better?\u201d Marchand said.<\/p>\n Players like Marchand saw the opportunities that developing players in bigger cities had access to \u2013 more high-end skills coaches, sophisticated training facilities, elite hockey academies and frequent ice time. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any of that available to us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just kind of grinded it out.\u201d<\/p>\n The question Halifax-area hockey coach Brad Crossley gets asked most is, what\u2019s in the water in Nova Scotia? It\u2019s the thing everybody wants to know.<\/p>\n In a nation that prides itself on hockey, there\u2019s always clusters of talent to be found; Connor McDavid and Sam Bennet, MVP of last year\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs, grew up 10 minutes apart in Newmarket, Ont., and were nine-year-old linemates. Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard \u2013 both drafted first overall and destined to be cornerstones of future Olympic teams \u2013 came up together at the North Shore Winter Club in Vancouver. <\/p>\n But the greater-Halifax cluster, emerging from an area with a population base of about half a million people, is particularly unique.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say it\u2019s in the water, but it\u2019s in their blood,\u201d Crossley said.<\/p>\n \u201cThose guys have three things. Number one, every detail matters. Number two, when they step on the ice, they don\u2019t play nice. And number three, they work harder than everybody else. They want to be known for that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSid\u2019s a prime example. Everyone says, \u2018Geez, you\u2019re just so gifted, you\u2019re so good.\u2019 But nobody really sees the work he puts in.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Brad Crossley still coaches locally and works with Crosby and MacKinnon when they return home after the NHL season.<\/p>\n Crossley coached the Dartmouth Subways, a local AAA under-18 team, when Crosby played as a 14-year-old underage phenom. \u201cSid had 217 points in 87 games that year, it was just crazy.\u201d He now runs the summer workouts when all three return home at the end of the season.<\/p>\n The ice times are hard to explain to an outsider, Crossley said. If someone were to walk in off the street, they might be left with the impression that the three harbour some sort of deep grudge against each other. But that friction is the sand in the oyster that ultimately produces the pearl. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re vicious at times,\u201d Crossley said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they step on the ice, at times it\u2019s like they just don\u2019t like each other.\u201d <\/p>\n There\u2019s a story told locally, as though it may one day be enshrined as a Canadian Heritage Minute, about Crosby and MacKinnon training together early in their careers, sprinting up Halifax\u2019s Citadel Hill as part of their workouts. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d be grabbing for each other\u2019s ankles to try to stop the other guy from getting ahead. That\u2019s just the way they train,\u201d Crossley said.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Crosby and Macklin Celebrini, who grew up on opposite Canadian coasts, trained together this summer. They played for Team Canada at last spring\u2019s IIHF World Championship in Stockholm.Anders Wiklund\/TT News Agency via AP<\/p>\n In preparation for the Olympics, select other Team Canada hopefuls flew in to train with them, including Celebrini. Fresh off a standout rookie campaign in San Jose, Celebrini was being talked about last summer as a possibility to make Team Canada, but probably a longshot. Crosby and MacKinnon saw it differently.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you that some of the players that are included in some of our sessions, it\u2019s almost calculated. And I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s Sid and Nate putting together rosters, or how it works, but Celebrini came down here for a purpose,\u201d Crossley said.<\/p>\n Asked later if the skates in Halifax were as intense as people say, Celebrini simply responded, \u201cYeah, they are.\u201d<\/p>\n MacKinnon in particular has set a high bar for himself in Milan, especially after last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off, where Canada needed a McDavid goal in overtime to win. MacKinnon, no-nonsense in interviews, batted aside any suggestion that anything he did on-ice this offseason was special.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t work that hard,\u201d MacKinnon said after a recent Colorado Avalanche practice in Toronto, where he was among the last players off the ice. \u201cI think Sid worked a lot harder than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n As the guy who watched both of them, Crossley saw it differently.<\/p>\n \u201cNate\u2019s probably one of the most vicious, intense people I\u2019ve ever been on the ice with.\u201d<\/p>\n Few people have witnessed the golden era of Halifax-area hockey like Jon Greenwood.<\/p>\n A few years older than Crosby, he remembers Thursday nights at Cole Harbour Place in the 1990s, where the games would start at 6:30 p.m. and go all night. When Crosby was on the ice, it could be tough to find a seat. <\/p>\n \u201cWe would all show up early to watch the younger guys play, and the younger guys would stay around after their games to watch us play,\u201d Greenwood remembers.<\/p>\n \u201cThose home nights in Cole Harbor were pretty special. It was a real community feel.\u201d<\/p>\n When Greenwood was done playing, he got into coaching 11- and 12-year-olds. He soon began to hear about the next young phenom coming up \u2013 10-year-old MacKinnon. \u201cHe had something like 132 goals the year before, so we were pretty confident he\u2019d make our team,\u201d Greenwood said.<\/p>\n What he didn\u2019t expect was the kind of personality MacKinnon had. The kid was hard on himself. He saw Crosby and wanted to be him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was that uber-competitiveness at a young age,\u201d Greenwood said. \u201cThat could boil over from time to time, not necessarily in an undisciplined way or taking penalties, but just Nate getting frustrated because he expected so much from himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Greenwood, who coached MacKinnon, remembers the high expectations the player set for himself, even at a young age.<\/p>\n MacKinnon\u2019s calling card is his ability to charge through the neutral zone at high speed, like an unstoppable freight train. He\u2019s one of the game\u2019s best skaters, but it\u2019s something he had to work at.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s certainly some God-given ability, no question. That natural spring in his legs and the balance of power he had in his skate blades,\u201d Greenwood said. \u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t want to ever suggest he was born this skater. He put the time in. He was going to power-skating sessions before school through the week, and he did a lot of extra stuff to work on his skating. Now, that being said, so do a lot of other kids \u2013 and they don\u2019t skate like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of Crosby, Greenwood hasn\u2019t seen a player with this much competitive instinct. <\/p>\n \u201cWe all have those stories of the kids from our hometown that were uber-talented and could do all this stuff, but maybe didn\u2019t quite have that drive to push them. The drive that he had, even at a young age, was pretty remarkable. That\u2019s an innate ability you can\u2019t teach.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022, Greenwood and the other coaches wondered how it would affect MacKinnon. Would he finally breathe a bit, take his foot off the gas and allow himself some satisfaction?<\/p>\n \u201cHis first practice out that summer he was going like a madman and pushing himself, and we all kind of looked at each other and said, no, I guess that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche won 2022\u2019s Stanley Cup, but his former coach says he did not rest on his laurels.Phelan M. Ebenhack\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n Greenwood isn\u2019t sure what caused this generation of Halifax hockey to emerge.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously some fluke involved there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s in the water. I do think there is that small-town, blue-collar work ethic mentality. I like to think that most athletes from our part of the country have that. And then when you have generational talents, I think that\u2019s when you have this.\u201d<\/p>\n Greenwood brought his 11-year-old son to the summer workouts, to help fill water bottles and drink in the surroundings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were driving home from the practice and I said, \u2018Bud, I don\u2019t say this stuff to you very often, but you probably watched the best hockey practice in the world today,\u201d Greenwood said. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of pride that we take in it. There\u2019s no way there\u2019s a better skate in the world than this one. There can\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The Cole Harbour arena keeps its veterans\u2019 numbers high above the ice where new generations play.<\/p>\n Banners hang from the rafters of Cole Harbour Place, signifying Crosby and MacKinnon\u2019s time playing there.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a point of pride for the tiny enclave \u2013 though Marchand, proudly repping Dartmouth, would like to quibble with one small point.<\/p>\n \u201cNate\u2019s not actually Cole Harbour,\u201d Marchand said, poking the bear.<\/p>\n \u201cHe says he\u2019s Cole Harbour, but he\u2019s a Dartmouth boy. He just wants to be like Sid.\u201d<\/p>\n Informed of this, MacKinnon doesn\u2019t flinch. You get the sense Marchand says this a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, technically my address is Dartmouth, and I played for Cole Harbor growing up,\u201d MacKinnon said. \u201cIt\u2019s all like within a street of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Greenwood chuckles at the jab. Months after their spirited summer workouts, Marchand, in true Marchand fashion, can\u2019t help getting one more shot in.<\/p>\n \u201cGeographically, Brad\u2019s not incorrect. He\u2019s sort of on the border.\u201d <\/p>\n This is Crosby\u2019s third Olympics. And though he\u2019s proven remarkably adept at holding back the inevitable march of time, at 38, Milan could be his last. It will also mark only the second time these three Halifax-area players have skated together for Canada at a best-on-best tournament, after last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n \u201cJust grateful for the chance to still be competing and having the opportunity to do this,\u201d Crosby said at Team Canada\u2019s orientation camp in Calgary this fall. \u201cYou never know. It\u2019s a tough sport and it\u2019s competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n Back home, one of his first coaches will be watching. Paul Mason, who coached a 10-year-old Crosby, takes no credit for the player he became.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m lucky to have gotten in the way,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way I look at it. You coach a long time, you get a guy come through like that, you\u2019re fortunate, period.\u201d<\/p>\n There are plays Crosby attempted at that age \u2013 spinning off a check, putting the puck behind his back, or through his skates \u2013 that Mason still marvels at.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were always on the bench going, \u2018Did he do that on purpose?\u2019 And knowing that he did. He had a mind for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Today, Crosby\u2019s former coach Paul Mason owns a pro shop at Cole Harbour Place. Marli the dog has accompanied him to work for more than a decade.<\/p>\n One of Mason\u2019s favourite memories is when Crosby used the curvature of the net to creatively bank a pass to another player, who then found himself open for a scoring chance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next practice, as coaches, we went down to the side of the net and just started seeing if we could make that pass off the side of the net, and not under game pressure,\u201d Mason said. <\/p>\n None of them could.<\/p>\n \u201cFor his mind to go there in that situation was pretty incredible. I\u2019ve never seen a kid try to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n He remembers Crosby getting frustrated when teams would send out two or three players just to follow him around the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we\u2019d say why don\u2019t you leave the zone, let them follow you. And sometimes two kids would follow him out of the zone and then he\u2019d come in and beat them to the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n They are fond memories. And Mason, who\u2019s been coaching for 47 years, is just happy to have been part of it.<\/p>\n Still, he\u2019s unsure what lessons the Halifax area can offer the rest of the country. Is there a formula that other cities and towns can duplicate? Or is this all just an incredible coincidence, a wrinkle in the hockey universe? He wishes he knew.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s a freak event.\u201d<\/p>\n Milan Cortina 2026: More from The Globe and MailThe Decibel podcast<\/p>\n Canada may bill itself as a \u201cmiddle power\u201d these days, but Team Canada will not settle for middling results in Milan. Sports columnist Cathal Kelly spoke with The Decibel<\/a> how politics could shape the Olympic narrative and where our athletes have good chances of success. Subscribe for more episodes.<\/a><\/p>\n Olympic hockey in depth<\/p>\n Coach Jon Cooper\u2019s unlikely journey reaches its moment of truth<\/a><\/p>\n At her fifth Olympics, Marie-Philip Poulin keeps the fire burning<\/a><\/p>\n