COLE HARBOUR, Nova Scotia — In most years, July would represent the heart of the offseason for Sidney Crosby. But winning the Stanley Cup throws that usual schedule out of whack.
Would he have it any other way?
The Penguins captain is in his hometown for the second Sidney Crosby Hockey School at Cole Harbour Place, a community center where he played youth hockey. A little more than a month since leading the Penguins to their fourth Stanley Cup championship, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner will get to spend two days with the silver vessel this weekend, including a parade Saturday through Cole Harbour. And he has already started training for the World Cup of Hockey, which opens Sept. 17.
“It’s a pretty short summer, and that’s a challenge, I think, for going deep into the playoffs,” Crosby said Wednesday, halfway through the weeklong camp. “You’ve got to find a way to manage the work and rest at the same time.”
Saturday’s parade, which begins at 10:30 a.m. and concludes at Cole Harbour Place, will be shorter than the one that took place in 2009, after the Penguins’ third Cup win. Other than its expected cameo on the parade, Crosby wouldn’t go into much detail about his plans with the Cup. (In 2009, he took it for a ride on Grand Lake.)
“I don’t know if I want to necessarily go into details, but we’ll have a lot of things planned,” Crosby said. “The biggest thing is you want to enjoy it. It’s going to go by quick, but you try to get it to as many people as possible, and let as many people enjoy it.
“I was pretty happy with what I did in those two days, to be honest with you. I couldn’t believe I squeezed that much in in two days,” he said of his 2009 visit with the Cup. His only regret was that he went to bed too early on his first night with it.
“I’ve told myself, ‘I’m not going to go to bed that early next time,’ ” he said. “I’m going to find a way to get through those two days with as least sleep as possible. So I’m going to enjoy it, and I’ve said before, going back to ‘09, we thought it was going to be an annual thing, so I think that this time I appreciate it a little more, and I’ll make sure that I spend every second that I possibly can with it.”
Asked whether he planned to pour beer in the Cup, he joked, “Yeah, I thought that was automatic.”
Admission for the Sidney Crosby Hockey School is by a geographical lottery. The staff is made up of volunteers, from Crosby’s sister, Taylor, to Colorado Avalanche forward and fellow Cole Harbour product Nathan MacKinnon to several of Crosby’s longtime friends. Crosby also spends time on the ice with campers, who participate in on-ice and off-ice activities from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. each day.
“It’s amazing. We got signatures from Sid today,” gushed Cooper Fink, 12, from Minocqua, Wis., who has aspirations to play in the NHL.
Thousands of boys and girls entered the lottery for 160 spots, and campers hail from as near as Cole Harbour and as far away as Japan and Australia, said Paul Mason, Crosby’s former hockey and baseball coach, one of the camp organizers. Proceeds from the camp benefit the Sidney Crosby Foundation.
Are there any young Sidney Crosbys among the campers?
“There are some good skilled kids,” Mason said, “but too early to tell.”
Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1750 and Twitter @BloomPG.
First Published: July 14, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
Updated: July 14, 2016, 4:17 a.m.
