Cooper: Crosby will go down as 'greatest player' ever for Canada
Canada thwarted Sweden's comeback attempt with a 4-3 overtime victory to open the 4 Nations Face-Off on Wednesday night.
Mitch Marner scored the game-winner in the extra frame, but captain Sidney Crosby led the way for the Canadians with three assists. The performance was his seventh multi-point outing when representing his home country, per Sportsnet Stats.
"(Crosby) will go down as the greatest player to ever wear the Canadian jersey," national team coach Jon Cooper said postgame, per Sportsnet's Eric Engels.
Crosby's first helper was a slick behind-the-back feed to fellow Nova Scotian Nathan MacKinnon on the power play just 56 seconds into the game. He then held off Swedish defenseman Gustav Forsling to set up Mark Stone in the middle stanza before assisting on Marner's overtime tally.
"Insane," Marner said of Crosby's performance. "It's crazy, just watching him, being on his team, just seeing the work ethic, everything he does. Its insane, that Stone goal, what he did on that play was insane. That's why he's a top player in the world."
He added: "You tell 10-year-old Mitch that he scored an overtime goal assisted by Sidney Crosby, the guy he's looked up to since Day 1, yeah, it's pretty crazy. I'm sure my family's going to be very excited about that one."
Crosby was named the first star of the game and fans at the Bell Centre showed their appreciation by chanting his name.
"Special, the atmosphere, played in this building many times in the playoffs, but tonight, it was pretty cool," he told Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas after the matchup. "Just an unbelievable game, unbelievable skill and talent out there. It was some great hockey."
Canada has now won 26 straight games across all international competitions with Crosby in the lineup since Feb. 21, 2010, which was a preliminary clash at the Vancouver Olympics.
The first period of Wednesday's showdown belonged to the Canadians. They outshot the Swedes 7-3 and held a 6-0 edge in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Sweden wasn't credited with a shot on goal until 17:16 in, four minutes after Canada made it 2-0 off a goal from Brad Marchand, which electrified the Bell Centre crowd. It was a change of pace for the Boston Bruins forward, who is used to being booed in Montreal.
"I heard a few boos out there still, but it's incredible the way that Canada rallies behind the team," he told NHL Network's Jackie Redmond during the first intermission. "You feel so much love and emotion. You can see how excited they are out there, so it's fun to be out there."
It didn't take long for Sweden to quiet the crowd, though. Defenseman Jonas Brodin got his team on the board in the second, and Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek knotted the game up at three before the halfway point of the third period.
Stone revealed that Crosby helped settle the team down after Sweden came back.
"It's special, man, the way he goes about his business, the way he can calm a bench down," Stone told the NHL on TNT panel. "Obviously we get the 3-1 lead going into the third, we kind of give it away there, but he calms things down, has that presence. He's still playing at a crazy-high level at his age. He's been doing it for what, 20 years? God, I don't see him slowing down any time soon."
Swedish goaltender Filip Gustavsson made an incredible sprawling save on defenseman Devon Toews to help force overtime. He turned aside 24 shots in the loss. At the other end of the ice, Jordan Binnington made 23 saves on 26 shots, including some big game-saving stops in overtime.
Canada earned two of a possible three points with the victory, but it came at a cost.
Rearguard Shea Theodore departed the game in the second period with an apparent wrist injury, so his team had to play with five defensemen for more than half the contest.
The Canadians will take on the United States on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.