As an NHL rookie in 2005–06, the same season a precocious kid from Nova Scotia debuted, Alex Ovechkin would grab a marker every day and write the same Cyrillic word on a grease board in the Capitals dressing room: Poccnr. Russia. See, Ovechkin was a puck patriot long before vowing in January 2009 that he would play in his homeland in Sochi in 2014 even if the NHL ends its Olympic participation after this year. The writing was on the wall.

The signs got to him first. He was ready for the official one on the right there, just as they rolled past the town limit—COLE HARBOUR, HOME OF SIDNEY CROSBY—but then they kept coming, block letters slapped up on light boards at the businesses lining Cole Harbour Road: WELCOME HOME at the Petro-Canada station, HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Kyte’s Pharmasave, CONGRATS! at Chris Brothers Meats. And the thought began to rise: I didn’t dream this alone. They wanted it for me too….

Still, he was doing O.K., waving and flashing that boy-band grin from the antique fire truck, one hand on the massive silver prize. Indeed, this had pretty much been the plan when, just minutes after leading Pittsburgh to the 2009 Stanley Cup championship, the Penguins’ center had been the first to reserve—captain’s prerogative—his day with the legendary Cup: August 7, his 22nd birthday. His jersey number (87) and salary ($8.7 million) had been famously chosen to honor the 8/7/87 arrival of Canada’s Next One; it was only right—not to mention superstitious and relentlessly cute—that after fulfilling all the promise and hype, after proving himself the heir of Howe and Orr and Gretzky, Crosby would choose this day to bring the supreme token of success home to Nova Scotia.