“When he comes to Canada, it’s like the Beatles, you know?”

Mike Sullivan couldn’t help but grin when describing the impact Sidney Crosby had on the fans present for this year’s Kraft Hockeyville game in northern Ontario. The Penguins defeated the Ottawa Senators, 5-2, in a preseason game at Sudbury Community Arena – hosted by the town of Elliot Lake – on Sunday evening.

“I think it’s so impressive to watch him interact with kids when he comes to these environments,” said the head coach about his captain, who walked a red carpet into the rink for morning skate along with his teammates, taking photos and signing autographs. Crosby then spent time chatting with kids on the bench for a Q&A during the session.

“He understands the influence that he can have and what it means to kids in environments like this, and he takes the time to make sure that he gives his time to all of these opportunities… he just represents everything that’s right about hockey,” Sullivan said.

Crosby highlighted a Pittsburgh roster filled with the players Sullivan hoped the kids would get excited about coming to watch, as “I think it’s our responsibility to represent the league and Pittsburgh Penguins in events like this, to support small communities,” he said. “These are the very people that support us, and so this is our way, I think, of giving back.”

Michael Bunting – from Scarborough, Ontario – had also taken part in that Q&A. He asked a couple of the kids if they’d ever been to an NHL game, and “they said no, so it’s obviously the first for them, and that’s really special for them… hopefully, we can make some memories for them.

“You kind of take it for granted when you grow up in a bigger city with rinks on every corner and NHL teams in the city and whatnot. So, it’s really special for everybody here. They get to come in the morning and see Sidney Crosby, I’m sure that’s a lot of these kids’ dreams.”

Later that evening, every time Crosby even got near the puck, the crowd cheered. He gave them plenty more to get excited about, as Crosby and his fellow franchise center Evgeni Malkin put on a show, combining for all five of Pittsburgh’s goals in the contest. Malkin had a hat trick, while Crosby tallied twice.

Afterward, Crosby said the reception meant a lot, especially at this point in his career. “You look at different experiences over the years, and I don’t think that stuff ever gets old when you’re in positions like this,” Crosby said. “It’s a preseason game, you haven’t played in five months, I think it’s definitely motivating when you have a turnout like we did and you see how excited people are to see an NHL game up close. I think it’s something that sticks with you. It’s a great welcome, and we appreciate the hospitality. It’s a great hockey community, and hopefully we put on a good show for them here.”

This is the lineup Pittsburgh dressed for the contest:

Anthony Beauvillier – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Blake Lizotte – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell

Michael Bunting – Kevin Hayes – Cody Glass

Jonathan Gruden – Sam Poulin – Boko Imama

Matt Grzelcyk – Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson – Harrison Brunicke

Owen Pickering – Dan Renouf

Tristan Jarry played the first half of the game in goal before Filip Larsson took over. Lizotte didn’t even get to play a shift after getting hit in the face with a puck on the bench. “Scary thing. He never saw it coming. That was a tough one,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think the guys were used to the bench being that far down into the zone. That’s a little bit different in this rink.”

In addition to the special atmosphere, tonight marked the preseason debut for most of Pittsburgh’s players, which meant they were all looking forward to finally seeing real game action for the first time in months. With Ottawa also fielding a strong roster, things were competitive and chippy.

The Penguins got off to a slow start, understandable in the circumstances, with Crosby ensuring they went into the first intermission down by only a goal after re-directing a feed from Kris Letang.

Malkin evened the score in the second period with a fluky goal on the power play that had eyes once it left his stick. Considering Pittsburgh’s struggles on the power play last year, they’ll take them any way they can get them. He then put the Penguins in front with a nifty backhand goal late in the middle frame.

In the final frame, Crosby also converted on the power play. The goal was similar to his first, with this feed coming from another longtime teammate in Rust. Crosby went down on one knee in the same area – at the side of the net – and re-directed the pass in.

Sullivan said it was encouraging to see the fruits of new assistant coach David Quinn’s labors translate from practice to the game with a top unit that consisted of Crosby, Malkin, Rust, Letang and Rickard Rakell.

“I think it’s something to build on. Certainly should give them a boost of confidence,” Sullivan said. “It should provide some affirmation that if we have the right intentions out there and we execute, we’re going to have a good power play, because we have real good players. So, I was happy for all of them. I thought they played pretty well.”

Malkin finished off the scoring with an empty-netter. The Penguins return to action on Monday in Detroit to make up the preseason game originally scheduled for Saturday that got postponed due to travel issues.