Sidney Crosby is a born winner and a natural leader. But more than anything, he’s a great human being who always talks with fans and shows his appreciation to anyone who supports him or the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Crosby was a hyped-up prospect but still managed to succeed everyone’s high expectations of him.
He’s always been a great ambassador for hockey, and there are countless stories out there about Crosby and the Pens captain doing incredible things for fans.
And it also seems he has a great sense of humor.
It’s a sporting tradition to heckle the opposing team’s best players, and when the Penguins played against the New York Rangers at the Madison Square Garden in 2019, Crosby learned all about it.
Crosby was sent to the penalty box for tripping, and just behind the sin bin sat Rangers fan Nick Lipeika.
As the cameras panned to Crosby during the broadcast, he was seen laughing at the things Lipeika said.
Crosby was so impressed by the chirps that he even gave the fan a signed stick after the game.
A while later, Lipeika gave an interview in which he took everyone through the process and revealed exactly what he said to Crosby to get him laughing.
”I just tried to hit him with things he’d never heard before, something that would almost make him laugh, just kind of giggle, so I used [Evgeni] Malkin being a great player in his own right and wanted to get in his head a bit,” he told CBC Radio’s Mainstreet.
”I just kind of used his skills against Crosby and said things like, ’Malkin would have more [Stanley] Cups if he had a better supporting cast around him.’”
Apparently, he also said, ’Hey, Crosby! You were voted third toughest Canadian behind Céline Dion and a close second to Avril Lavigne.’
”Yeah, just to razz him a little bit, just to get him thinking. When I said that, someone was saying he got a decent chuckle out of it. I got as much as I could get in there in the two minutes.
”Again, it was all clean, good-hearted fun and he got a kick out of it and he proceeded to get his fun in on the ice when he scored a goal and got an assist. He definitely had one up on us at that point and the game was kind of a runaway.”
When he received the stick from Crosby after the game, he first didn’t realize that it was meant for him.
”We were just waiting for the crowd to dissipate and we were hanging out and a trainer from the Penguins came across and he had a stick in his hand. I just figured there was some Pittsburgh fan behind me he was going to hand it to. As the trainer reached over the boards, I didn’t even reach for the stick. People reached over and the trainer ended up pulling it back and he kind of knocked on the glass and said, ’This is for you.’
”I could see something was written on it and as he came into the penalty box and handed it to me, I read the quote of ’Good chirps take it easy on me next time!’ and the Crosby signature. It was good to know he had a great sense of humor.”
