How a half-asleep Sidney Crosby once saved his drunk teammate from getting into trouble with the police

By Srihari Anand

Modified May 18, 2024 06:55 GMT

Sidney Crosby has played savior for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Team Canada on mutliple occasions. Most famously, his OT goal, referred to as the "Golden Goal", during the 2010 Winter Olympics helped Canada clinch the gold medal will live on in the hearts and minds of hockey fans for eons to come.

However, Crosby's superhero-like savior attributes aren't just limited to the ice. This was disclosed by hockey sportscaster James Duethie in his book, "Beauties" wherein he narrates an incident from the perspective of Crosby's junior hockey teammate with the Rimouski Oceanic, Eric Nielson.

Per Nielson's story, the former fifth-round pick by LA Kings was intoxicated with his teammates and attempting to showoff his driving skills. He tried to bring out his inner Vin Diesel and attempted a "Tokyo-drift thing" which did not pan out the way he intented.

"I'm taking a couple of drunk teammates home... I'm showing off, coming around a corner, I try to do this e-brake tokyo drift thing, and I lose control. Now I'm doing donuts on the streets of Rimouski at 2 A.M. I hit the curb, bounce over it, hit three street signs and land in the other lane, facing the wrong way."

Nielson landed himself in trouble with the police as an officer nearby had front-row seats to the entire show and approached the car, which was not in its most pristine condition.

The enforcer for Rimouski's conversation with the cop turned from good to better when the officer demanded two autographed Sidney Crosby cards in order to let Nielson get away without any trouble.

Nielson narrated the incident as:

"The police officer shows up, and one of the girls in my car is talking to him. Finally, he comes up and says, 'I know it was a mistake. I'll make sure you don't get in any trouble. I just need one favor; I want two autographhed Crosby cards."

Having no choice but to accept the officer's demand, Nielson rushed into his then-roommate Crosby's room and got two Sidney Crosby cards autographed by The Kid himself, who was half-asleep at 2 AM:

"I run into (Crosby's) room, grab the cards and a marker from his desk, and shake him awake... I manage to semi-revive him and I'm like, 'Sid, you gotta sign these cards!' He scribbles his name, half-asleep. I go give them to the cop, and it's done."

Sidney Crosby thought he got pranked by his teammates

Unbeknownst to his heroic deed, Sidney Crosby's following morning started off in anger as the future Penguins captain and holder of multiple NHL records, found his face smothered in marker ink from the night before.

"The next morning, (Crosby) comes down for breakfast and he's got marker ink all over his face and chest, everywhere! He kept the marker in his hand as he went back to sleep. I'm like, 'Sid, you better go look in the mirror!' He thinks we pranked him, he's pretty mad when I tell him the real story."

The future Hall of Famer needed to be convinced that it was not a prank by his teammates, but indeed the marker from the night before that had forced an early morning face wash.

Sidney Crosby spent two seasons with the Rimouski Oceanic in the QMJHL between 2003 and 2005. Before even getting drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins as the No.1 pick in the 2005 Draft, the Nova Scotia native had already racked up quite the fan follwing even among the keepers of the law.