TORONTO — Sidney Crosby has been surrounded by the best hockey players on the planet at the World Cup of Hockey, and still seems as if he is in a class by himself.

“He’s probably the best player of our generation,” Canada goaltender Carey Price said.

The Pittsburgh Penguins superstar has a World Cup-high nine points – two more than anyone else – and is within a win of adding another accomplishment to his Hockey Hall of Fame-ready resume. Canada will play Team Europe in Game 2 Thursday night, leading the best-of-three series 1-0.

The eight-nation European team has been led lately by Tomas Tatar, who scored his team’s only goal in a 3-1 loss Tuesday night. The Slovakian forward scored two goals, including the winner, in a 3-2 overtime victory over Sweden in the semifinals on Sunday.

Tatar, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings, acknowledged he is inspired by Crosby’s greatness. And he knows slowing Crosby down is key to forcing a Game 3 on Saturday night.

“I’m not saying one guy should be standing by him, but we should be always aware of where he is on the ice,” Tatar said.

Advertisement

Crosby has been much more effective than he was in his last best-on-best tournament appearance. He had only one goal and two assists at the 2014 Sochi Games, where he won his second Olympic gold medal.

In the World Cup opener against the Czech Republic alone, he produced as many points with a goal and two assists in a sensational stretch that lasted less than 20 minutes.

Crosby insisted he could not care less that he has already tripled the number of points he had in Russia.

“I just want to win,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what you want to do. In Sochi, it was more about why weren’t we scoring, low-scoring games, and the teams we were playing we’re supposed to be winning by a certain amount of goals.

“At the end of the day, we were winning games,” he said.

Mike Babcock, Crosby’s coach at the previous two Olympics, put Crosby on a line with Boston Bruins teammates Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron at the World Cup. The trio has combined for 22 points in five games.

Canadian and defenseman Drew Doughty said Crosby is probably playing better than he ever has.

“The three tournaments I’ve had the opportunity, I would say he’s playing unbelievable,” Doughty said. “Things are working for him now. He’s hot. Not that he didn’t play well at the other tournaments, he just didn’t get his hot.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.