anyway i’m not over this article so here are some things that made me :’)
1. …this lanky Russian star from a small, industrial town sat with his left shoulder pressed against the right shoulder of the face of hockey, this sturdy son of a Canadian harbor town. They came from wildly different backgrounds but, at this very moment, were a singular force. In many ways, this is how it should’ve been after a decade together. Two generational players, gifted to the Penguins one year apart, primed to leave an indelible mark on hockey’s biggest stage.
2. “Sometimes stars aren’t close,” says Rick Tocchet, their former assistant coach. “But those two, you know, it made things easier because of how close they are. You don’t see that every day.”
3. While Malkin’s English was limited, his mutual understanding of Crosby — on and off the ice — was pure instinct from their first days together.
“We’ve been together for a really long time now,” Crosby said. “Now that I think about it, it’s hard to believe how long it’s been. And to be honest, we became friends at the very beginning and it’s just always been that way. His English wasn’t so great at first, but we just always understood each other from the beginning.”
“I like to think I can relate to the pressure that he deals with and the expectations that come with all of that pressure. We were both high draft picks and expected to do a lot of big things when we entered the league. You are happy and excited to be drafted that high, for sure. But at the same time, there is a different kind of pressure there. Geno and I have talked about it before and I think we just always have kind of had a sense for one another, when we’re up, when we’re down, what we’re dealing with.”
4. Having failed to bring the Penguins back to a Stanley Cup Final after playing in two during their first three seasons together, Crosby and Malkin each sensed their partnership could be the next casualty for continued postseason failures.“I of course worry because GM, coach and Nealer are gone,” Malkin said three years later. “Is not mad, but worry that maybe they say Sid and I can’t play together too. We have to win again, of course. To stay together, we have to win again.
“I tell Sid we have to win again because I always want to play with you.”
5. During his rookie season, Malkin often caught himself transfixed on a framed photograph that hung above an entranceway separating the home dressing room and player’s lounge at the old Civic Arena. The framed photograph showed Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr each gripping a side of the Cup that the Penguins won in 1991 and in 1992. On the day before Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final in Detroit, Malkin was one of the last players to leave Civic Arena. Before he departed for the airport, he took one last look at that framed photo and told a reporter, “I want one of me and Sid.”
In the euphoric chaos of the on-ice celebration in Detroit the next night, Malkin and Crosby never managed to get that picture. No big deal. They were young. They were in charge. They would have many other chances. Or so they thought.
When the Penguins won their long-awaited second title of the Crosby/Malkin era in San Jose in 2016, they simply forgot again. Strike 2.There would be no Strike 3.
Malkin had instructed a team employee on the morning of Game 6 in Nashville to “get me and Sid with Cup if we win, no matter what.”
Lounging on a sofa with his injured toe resting on a table, dressed casually as if he had just warmed up for a tennis match against his actual brother, Malkin stroked his chin while looking at a digital picture of him and Crosby posing for the picture that had eluded them twice before.
“The best picture of my life,” Malkin says. “My two friends, and me.”
6. “I hope we win more,” Crosby said. “That’s always the goal. But no matter what, he’s my friend for life.”
7. At his apartment in Moscow, his offseason condominium on Florida’s Fisher Island and at his home in Pittsburgh, Malkin displays various memorabilia of Crosby. These include Russian nesting dolls painted in Crosby’s likeness, framed photographs, pucks and sticks from various games, anything and everything the most serious Crosby fan would want for his or her collection. Malkin jokes that Nikita, his son, will probably pick Crosby as his favorite player because of all the stuff.
“Is good,” Malkin said. “Of course, I will be his real favorite. But Sid is the best player, the best teammate. A great friend. I hope Nikita thinks of him as family. I do.”
Clearly, Crosby considers Malkin family.
“Having him around has always made my life better, on and off the ice,” Crosby said. “He has a way of knowing when to make you laugh, knowing when to lighten the room. But at the same time, he knows when to be serious, too. It’s just a great friendship. I just always liked him from the start. Always have. Always will.”
