In a game that had room for him to be the special one, Nathan MacKinnon took it
CBC
Chris Jones reports from Milan.
In any city in Canada other than Cole Harbour, Nathan MacKinnon would be the favourite son.
“HOME OF SIDNEY CROSBY,” the town sign boasts over a pair of later additions. First, there’s a commemoration of the town’s receipt of the 2018 Lieutenant Governor’s Community Spirit Award. And then, almost as an afterthought, MacKinnon is congratulated for his 2022 Stanley Cup.
Maybe now, after MacKinnon scored with 35.2 seconds left to lift Canada to a thrilling 3-2 win over Finland in the men’s hockey semifinal in Milan, he’ll receive closer to equal billing.
Timing has played into the uneven affection. Crosby is eight years older than MacKinnon. He also has three Stanley Cups to his one, and two Olympic golds to his none.
Personality has, too. Crosby and MacKinnon, who return to Cole Harbour each off-season and skate together all summer long, are unlikely friends, beyond their ferocious competitiveness.
Off the ice, at least, Crosby is warm, thoughtful, easygoing. MacKinnon is harder edged, almost strangely focused on the game and its gears and levers. He doesn’t smile or blink very often, and he sometimes seems confused by his fellow humans and their feelings.
“It was a five-man effort,” MacKinnon said of his goal. “Obviously happy one squeaked in.”
Jon Cooper, his admiring head coach, wouldn’t allow him his usual understatement. “He got rewarded for the wall battle right before that. He won that wall battle and kept everything alive. He’s probably not giving himself enough credit.”
He rarely does. But in a game that had room for him to be the special one, MacKinnon took it.
Crosby did not dress, after he injured his knee in the quarterfinal against Czechia. He had been fitted with a brace and had skated on Friday morning, and there was hope he might play against Finland until an hour before the puck dropped.
Crosby couldn’t go, and a murmur went through the still-filling arena.
Then the Canadians fell behind, first by one goal, and then by two, and the murmuring turned into something shriller.
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