VANCOUVER — The Penguins practiced at the University of British Columbia’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon.
During the practice, I was contemplating different topics for an article. The Penguins are red hot at the moment, they’re climbing the Eastern Conference standings and Pittsburgh is rightfully starting to get excited about them.
I found myself distracted during practice, and then it occurred to me that the thing I was being distracted by was so much bigger than anything else I could have written.
It was a sensationally beautiful day in British Columbia (sorry to everyone who is reading this back home), and yet, you could barely move inside a freezing hockey rink on this afternoon. For as far as one could see, hockey fans — most of them children — were hanging over railings to get a glimpse of Sidney Crosby.
They made signs for him. They screamed his name every time he skated to their section of the arena. They cheered every time he scored a goal. They wore his jersey. They literally watched his every move during the hour-long practice.
Never underestimate the influence Crosby has on kids in hockey, especially in Canada. Been in the NHL for 21 years and they’re hanging over railings to get a glimpse of him in practice. pic.twitter.com/6FEc4QWIGf
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) January 24, 2026
This isn’t common, especially when considering we are talking about a 38-year-old man. I don’t think children typically identify with or worship players that age. Sure, they understandably loved Crosby when he really was “Sid the Kid,” but he’s 18 months away from turning 40. One would assume kids who love hockey these days would more easily identify with and root for young stars such as Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard, because they are practically children themselves.
Yet there they were in Vancouver, just like they show up in every NHL city, particularly in Canada.
“He’s the guy,” Vancouver native Parker Wotherspoon said after practice, noticing all the of the kids clamoring for a view of Crosby. “He’s still the guy. He’s the best.”
Once upon a time, Wotherspoon was one of those kids.
When Crosby plays in Vancouver, it’s impossible to avoid thinking about the Golden Goal. It remains perhaps the most famous goal in the sport’s history. The United States has never come closer to catching up with the Canadian hockey machine than on that day in Vancouver. Crosby, then 22 and already a Stanley Cup champion and the world’s undisputed greatest player, set off celebrations from here to Halifax with his goal that gave Canada a 3-2 victory.
Wotherspoon remembers watching that game as a 12-year-old, and he remembers what a big deal it was every time Crosby came to British Columbia.
“It was the biggest thing when Sid would come out here,” Wotherspoon said. “Back then, it was only once every other year because teams didn’t play in every building every season. We’d get Ovi (Alex Ovechkin) one year, then Sid the next. And yeah, when Sid was here, it was all anyone wanted to talk about. And I’m lucky because, when you get to know him, you see what an incredible person he is.”
When you’re around as long as Crosby, you eventually become teammates with people who had your poster on their bedroom walls. Crosby is plenty old enough to be 18-year-old Ben Kindel’s father, and every day this season, Kindel’s locker stall is right beside Crosby’s as the rookie soaks in all the knowledge he can from the legend beside him.
In something I find fairly remarkable, Crosby’s impact on children has never changed. Maybe it’s the nickname. Maybe kids are smart and just want to be around greatness. More than anything, though, I suspect kids are very adept at recognizing human warmth. And in Crosby, it’s there to an extreme level.
There are many stars in today’s NHL, and in my experience, most of them are perfectly nice people. Not one of them, however, possesses Crosby’s natural warmth. Not even close.
I suspect that is what draws young people to him.
Jim Rutherford, Crosby’s former general manager and now the president of hockey operations in Vancouver, once said something to me that I’ll never forget.
I had told Rutherford about a time I witnessed Crosby in Calgary following a game against the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome. He had already entered the team bus on a bitterly cold evening. A few children had gathered on a hill above the bus and had made signs wishing Crosby luck at the upcoming Winter Olympics. Upon seeing this, Crosby, suit and tie and all, climbed an icy hill, signed autographs for each of them and talked with them for minutes before heading back to the bus. I’d bet money that the conversation meant more to the kids than an autograph.
“I’ve seen him do stuff like that,” Rutherford said. “The way Sidney Crosby treats children is the single most impressive thing I have ever seen in this sport.”
Maybe that’s it. Maybe generations of stars come and go, but Crosby remains the favorite of younger generations because stories like this have been told over and over, and come to life before their very eyes.
Even the greatest player in the world, the guy who finally surpassed Crosby, was once this way.
I met Connor McDavid when he was a 15-year-old star in Erie. We spoke on the phone the next day for an interview, and McDavid said to me, “Do you really know Sid? That’s amazing. I have his poster on my wall.”
Crosby will retire someday, of course. The NHL and the hockey world will not be the same place without him.
Scanning that crowd today, I remember McDavid saying that to me 14 years ago. While McDavid doesn’t necessarily have Crosby’s warmth — no one does — he recognized it as a child, probably before he knew that he’d be Crosby’s successor as the greatest player in the world.
He just wanted to be around Crosby, wanted to watch him, wanted to talk about him.
I scanned all of those kids in Vancouver and wondered if the next best player in the world was out there. You never know.
It’s a pretty cool thing that, whether the next great one is out there or not, they got to spend an afternoon watching Crosby. Kids were doing the same thing 20 years ago. Maybe they’ll be doing it for a while longer.
He is an athlete who defies time as a player and as a beloved figure.
In Crosby, there is truly nothing but good.
Children recognize it so clearly.
It was golden.
PRACTICE NOTES — The Penguins practiced for an hour — most of the players actually stayed on the ice for well over an hour — in one of the longer, more grueling practices of the season. They had a day off yesterday and no morning skate on Sunday because it’s an afternoon game, so they had quite the intense practice. … Kris Letang, who has missed the past two games after getting banged up in Seattle, was back at practice and was not wearing a no-contact jersey. Dan Muse didn’t confirm that Letang will play on Sunday against the Canucks, but it seems likely that he’ll be active … If Letang comes back, either Connor Clifton or Jack St. Ivany will presumably be a healthy scratch.