1. Enjoys podcasts: He doesn’t limit himself to sports broadcasts. Crosby told an intriguing tale about becoming hooked on a podcast about coyotes. Not the NHL Coyotes playing in Glendale, Ariz. We’re talking real Coyotes. Crosby provided a fascinating explanation of how challenging it is to deal with coyote over-population. Apparently, it's far more complicated than wrestling with NHL defensemen.
2. Q: What player who might surprise everyone here is a really interesting, or really fun, or really energetic person to be around?
Chris Johnston: Sidney Crosby to me would probably be the most obvious answer because any time you’ve seen him on TV in a clip, you have no idea how much shit’s going on in that guy’s brain. I mean, whenever he’s done playing hockey, I hope that we all get to learn this: he’s got- I almost think he’s like Rain Man or something (crowd laughs).
I’ve been lucky enough to be around him... I was a full-time NHL reporter from around 05/06 till now, and he’s been a player that has been of some interest in those 12 or 13 years. And when you get to know him, he’s CRAZY.
So, last year, during the playoffs, I flew in - I know his parents quite well - I flew in with his dad to one of the series. And we had crazy turbulence, like, oddly bad turbulence.
And then I saw him, and I was like, ‘Hey, did your dad tell you, like, we nearly crashed?’
And he looks at me, and he goes, ‘What kind of engine was it?’ (laughs) He was like, ‘Dual or single?’ and he goes on this long explanation of why the plane we were on was unlikely to crash in turbulence. And I was like, ‘Dude! I was just kidding. Like, I saw your dad, and we nearly died, and whatever, like…’ (laughs)
And he’s that sort… His brain is working on a level way above ours at Puck Talks, all of ours. Not to disparage anyone in the crowd, because we might have a genius or two out here, but a guy like that, I think, when his career’s over and he shows a different side of himself, he’s got a ton to say.
-Puck Talks Fest: Panel 3 Night 2 - Aly Munro, Tyler Dellow, Chris Johnston, Mike Zeisberger, 30 June 2017
3. The 23-year-old is now 25: Sid the Kid is now Sid the Man. They used to say his lips looked too big for his face, but he's grown into them in more ways than one – they no longer murmur the comforting clichés that young sports stars use as a shield.
This Sidney Crosby is more connected to his off-ice experiences – to the long months spent recovering from concussion, when he turned to reading rather than video games. He became a bit of a history buff, keen on war stories and tales of leadership.
Rather tellingly, his favourite book over those tough times was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.
...Is it a new maturity? His agent questions that. "When I first met him," Brisson says, "he was 13 years old and asked questions a 15-, 16-year-old might ask. When he was 16, he was talking like a 20-year-old."
It might be more apt, he suggests, to say Crosby has become more reflective. He believes that the changes in the young man from Cole Harbour, N.S., have their genesis in Crosby's struggles to overcome the fog of concussion, as well as in his own contract negotiations last summer, which led to a 12-year, $104.4-million deal with the Penguins.
Crosby spent much of his down time becoming more interested in the world apart from hockey. Along with Unbroken, he read other books about military events, such as Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and The Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10 . He likes to watch Homeland , the television series about a CIA agent and a soldier returning from years as a prisoner of war in Afghanistan.
Brisson recalls coming back from a holiday with his wife to Bora Bora: Instead of just looking at vacation pictures, Crosby told them all about the Pacific island's strategic role as a supply base for the United States. during the Second World War.
When it comes to the game, though, Crosby says he is a determined "traditionalist." In Winnipeg recently to play the Jets, he insisted on walking down Portage Avenue in minus-40-with-windchill weather, so he could "feel the Canadian winter" and get in a proper frame of mind for the game.
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