After Pittsburgh’s season ended, Sidney Crosby traveled overseas to participate in the 2025 World Championship in Sweden and Denmark.
“At my age, it’s not too often you get the opportunity to keep playing in tournaments like this, represent Canada, be part of this group,” the captain said. “It’s more about not having many chances to do this and trying to take advantage.”
The 38-year-old led his team to a 6-0-1 record in the preliminary round, with Canada set to face Denmark in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 2:20 PM Eastern time. As @PenguinsPR noted, Crosby has notched 11 points (4G-7A) and is +7 in seven games; second on Team Canada in goals and assists and third in points; and his 11 points are tied for fifth in the entire tournament.
“When you’re playing with Crosby, you get to appreciate him more, and see how much he does,” Ryan O’Reilly told the IIHF website. “When you’re playing against him, you’re more worried what he’s going to do. It’s nice to be on the more relaxing side and see how good he is, and those little touches. Some of those goals, they were incredible plays, and the playmaking ability, it’s the reason he’s the best player in the world. It’s just impressive.”
Crosby is looking to continue that strong play into the next phase of the competition, with hopes of capturing his second World Championship gold medal after winning it all in 2015. That earned Crosby induction into the Triple Gold club, then just the 26th player to win Worlds gold, Olympic gold, and the Stanley Cup, and first to have captained all three teams to their respective titles.
Winning gold at this World Championship would give Crosby multiple titles in those three categories, and make him just the fourth member of the Double Triple Gold Club after Peter Forsberg, Igor Larionov, and Slava Fetisov.
Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury is looking to become the first-ever goalie to join the Triple Gold Club, as this is his World Championship debut. There was so much talk about Flower and Sid playing against each other for the final two times last season that we didn’t even think about the possibility of them playing together.
It’s been so heartwarming to see them reunited for the first time since 2017, after years of being Penguins teammates who won together, sat next to each other on the plane, and pranked each other.
Brb crying 🥹 https://t.co/mwy9Mb8rHT
After Fleury got the call from Pittsburgh’s President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas, serving as GM for Team Canada at the World Championship, he said he was looking forward to spending time with Crosby – “and yell at him in practice a bit, keep him honest in practice.”
Fleury probably got a kick out of 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini, drafted first overall by San Jose in 2024, calling his buddy (wearing a neckguard that’s as old as their friendship) Mr. Crosby. “He immediately corrected me that he was Sid,” Celebrini said. They’ve been playing on a line together throughout the tournament, which is a dream come true for Celebrini.
“Got to know him a little bit throughout the years, and to get to play on a line with him and have him here, it’s pretty special,” he said. It’s a feeling shared by every player taking part in the tournament, as evidenced by the way opposing teams line up to shake Crosby’s hand after each game.
oh, sidney crosby, your impact pic.twitter.com/BoQ2TQkFx3
