Yes, that was Sidney Crosby in town yesterday (Monday). Though if you didn’t see him, you weren’t alone.

The Pittsburgh Penguins star flew into Hamilton airport yesterday morning on a private jet and was then whisked to the locked-down Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster where he played at a private function with 120 Tim Hortons owners and suppliers who’d each paid $2,000 for the opportunity.

The company’s charitable foundation had rented the entire course for the day for the fundraiser.

It’s the first time HGCC had ever done something like this.

The event was so private even members of the club weren’t permitted onto most parts of the property.

Which wasn’t much of a problem since they weren’t told Crosby was coming. Nor were they told he’d be joined by PGA Tour pros Graham Delaet and Blake Adams for the day.

The pros worked their way around the course all day playing a hole with each foursome.

Meanwhile, the Olympic hero and Stanley Cup winner — and Tim Hortons pitchman — played the same par-3 hole all day.

He’d chat with each group that came by Hole 7 East for 10 or 12 minutes, pose for pictures and sign some autographs.

Then take his turn hitting.

And how was he as a golfer?

Store owner Steve Foxcroft was more than a little surprised at what he saw when it was his turn to tee off with the Canadian icon.

“He knocked it two feet to the stick,” Foxcroft says. “Seriously.”

thespec.com

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith were both members of the 2010 Men’s Olympic Team and will be in Edmonton, Alta. on Monday, June 28 for the Hockey Canada Foundation (HCF) Celebrity Classic gala, including the public Canada Celebrates event at Commonwealth Stadium. They are two of 61 Olympic and World hockey champions from 2009-10 who will be attending the highly-anticipated celebration.

For more information on the upcoming HCF Celebrity Classic gala, including how to buy tickets for the Canada Celebrates event on June 28, go to www.hockeycanada.ca/hcf.

NHL stars and nominees Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Martin Brodeur, Mike Green, Duncan Keith, Ryan Kesler, Ryan Miller, Drew Doughty and many more will walk the red carpet and be on hand Wednesday beginning at 5 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. PT prior to the NHL Awards Show at The Palms heater at The Palms Hotel.

Be sure to check out all the fun at NHL.com (6:30 p.m. ET). The NHL Awards Show will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. ET on VERSUS in the United States and at 8:30 p.m. on CBC in Canada (9 p.m. in Newfoundland).

Also joining in will be three members of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp.

Florida rockers Shinedown and cast members from Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles LOVE will walk the red carpet before they get set to perform during the star-studded show.

Jamie Iovine, also known as DJ EYE, who will be spinning at the 2010 NHL Awards, and Hey Rosetta!, performing at the NHL Awards party, will also walk the red carpet. Host Jay Mohr, with his wife, actress Nikki Cox, and celebrity presenters including actors Mark Wahlberg, John Slattery, Jamie Kennedy, Kevin Zegers, D.B. Sweeney, Natasha Henstridge, Michael Rosenbaum and Leven Rambin; legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer; George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC’s “The Hour”; Reese Waters, co-host of “The Daily Line” on VERSUS; Miss Nevada 2010 Julianna Erdesz; and NHL greats past and present Guy Lafleur, Eddie Olczyk, Luc Robitaille, Jeremy Roenick and many more also will walk the red carpet.

The NHL announced the 2010-11 regular-season schedule today, and two dates stand out for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins will open their brand new state-of-the-art arena when they host the interstate rival Philadelphia Flyers at CONSOL Energy Center Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.

The other focal point will be a New Year’s Day showdown with Alex Ovechkin and the rival Washington Capitals in the NHL’s annual Bridgestone Winter Classic, which will be played at Heinz Field.

The Penguins’ schedule also features six contests against each Atlantic Division opponent and four games against the other 10 Eastern Conference teams.

The Penguins will play at least one game against each of the Western Conference teams, and will play two games (home-and-home) against three Western Conference clubs – Detroit, Phoenix and Columbus.

The regular starting time for evening home games at CONSOL Energy Center is 7 p.m.

Other schedule notables include:
•    A showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 20 at United Center
•    A western road trip to Dallas (Nov. 3), Anaheim (Nov. 5) and Phoenix (Nov. 6)
•    Five straight road games from Feb. 25-March 5 – at Carolina, at Toronto in back-to-back games, at New Jersey and at Boston
•    Nine home games against Western Conference opponents — Vancouver (Nov. 17), Calgary (Nov. 27), Phoenix (Dec. 20), Minnesota (Jan. 8), Detroit (Jan. 18), Columbus (Feb. 8), Los Angeles (Feb. 10), San Jose (Feb. 23) and Edmonton (March 13).

Click here to see the full schedule

New Lightning coach Guy Boucher has a pretty powerful ally in Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby, who said Boucher has “a great mind for the game.”

The two worked together during the 2004-05 season, when Crosby played juniors for Rimouski of the Quebec league and Boucher was an assistant.

“I took a lot of things from him,” Crosby recently told the St. Petersburg Times. “Probably the biggest thing was off the ice. There was an open line of communication there.”

There also was a lot of hands-on work, Crosby said, and added that Boucher had instant respect from the players because “he was a pretty good player himself.”

Today the Pens announced their pre-season schedule for the 2010-2011 season. They also announced that all games played at home will start a half hour early, at 7:00PM EST.

Wednesday, September 22nd vs Detroit
Friday, September 24th @ Columbus
Saturday, September 25th vs Columbus
Tuesday, September 28th vs Chicago
Friday, October 1st @ Chicago
Sunday, October 3rd @ Detroit

The regular season schedule will be released next week.

Hi everyone, Troy Birmingham, a very talented artist, has painted a collage of Sidney Crosby depicting the Gold Medal win in this year’s Olympics.

Title: The Golden Goal
Size: 16″ x 20″

187 Limited Edition Prints

Price: $160 unframed + shipping, $260 framed (in the St. John’s area only)

If you have any questions or you just want to check out Troy’s other prints, you can do so at his website: TroysArt.com or by email.

Click the image to see a larger view.

NHL.com is celebrating the end of the 2009-2010 season with a new highlight clip competition called 2010 Goals of the Year.

http://goalsoftheyear.nhl.com/

NHL.com is featuring the 16 best goal highlights of the 2009-2010 campaign, and two of those videos are competing Head2Head each day for the next 15 days. It’s a single elimination tournament that resembles the March Madness setup.

Vote for Sid!!

Hockey Canada has officially complained to the International Ice Hockey Federation over an IIHF official denigrating players such as Sidney Crosby for not playing at the world hockey championship.

Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson raised the matter directly with IIHF president Rene Fasel on Thursday.

Nicholson also spoke with National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman, who was upset by the commentary published on the IIHF website by Szymon Szemberg, the federation’s director of communications.

Szemberg, on the IIHF’s home page on Wednesday, slammed players who don’t turn out for the world championship, saying they are turning their backs on their national teams, their fans and the hockey organizations that helped them develop.

“Players who say no to representing their country at the world championship without a legitimate reason turn their backs not only on the team and its fans but also to the system which developed them and made them rich and famous,” he wrote. “They should pay back, but they don’t.

The Hockey Hall of Fame (located in Toronto, Canada) announced today that they have placed the gloves and stick Sidney Crosby used to score the winning overtime goal in the Gold Medal Hockey game (at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics) on display in their ‘Double Gold’ exhibit. As fans may remember, Team Canada won the Gold Medal game over Team USA 3-2.

The ‘Double Gold’ exhibit is a display of game worn/used Olympic artifacts from multiple nations dating back to 1896. “It’s a historic day when the Hockey Hall of Fame can display all four elements, namely the gold-medal puck, net, stick and gloves of an event that likely defined a hockey generation, “said Phil Pritchard, curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Following this historic win by Canada, the stick and gloves Sidney Crosby used to score the winning goal were misplaced sometime during the post game festivities and were thought to be lost forever. It was later discovered that one of Crosby’s gloves accidentally dropped into teammate Patrice Bergeron’s equipment bag. Crosby’s game stick was found in transit to Russia. “I am happy to see that the stick and gloves are at the Hockey Hall of Fame,” said Sidney Crosby. “I feel very fortunate to have been part of that team and that game as well, and I am glad hockey fans will get the chance to share the moment by seeing all the artifacts from that over-time up close, including my stick and gloves.”

The NHLPA auctions are finally up!

All proceeds will go to “Hockey for Haiti”, a joint initiative between Georges Laraque, the NHLPA and World Vision. In total, 140 Olympic hockey jerseys, worn by NHL players from 12 different countries, during the 2010 Olympics are up for auction.

To launch this one-of-a-kind auction, 23 jerseys from Team Canada players, including the jersey worn by Sidney Crosby when Canada faced off against Germany during their qualification round match-up and also the jersey worn by Jarome Iginla – who scored two goals in the February 23rd Canadian victory – will be up for bidding.

“Having the opportunity to participate in the Olympics and to represent Canada was a huge honour for me,” said Iginla. “It is fantastic that the jerseys that all NHLPA members wore in Vancouver, will now benefit the Hockey for Haiti initiative.”

Sidney Crosby Olympic Game Worn Team Canada Jersey

This jersey was worn by Sidney Crosby on February 23rd, 2010 during Team Canada’s 8-2 win over Team Germany at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Crosby had 14:43 of ice-time, and scored Canada’s fifth goal of the game. Crosby led Canada in shots on goal for this game with five.

The native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia was drafted by the Penguins first overall in 2005. Crosby is the first teenager in professional sports to win a scoring title. He has led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals winning in June of 2009. Crosby scored the overtime-winning goal in the 2010 Olympic gold medal game against the United Sates.

Sidney Crosby speaks with reporters during the Penguins’ off day in Montreal.

Watch the video

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are the Penguins’ biggest stars, but when playoff time comes around, their worried dads looking on from the stands get just as much attention from the fans.

Troy Crosby has been watching his son light up the ice since he was a little Timbit in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Malkin and his wife Natalia have become fixtures at Mellon Arena during the Penguins’ playoffs runs, rooting for their son right beside the fan faithful and hugging just about everyone in the stands.

“Natalia is not getting too many hugs. I’m probably the most of it. It feels great,” said Mr. Malkin, speaking through his translator George. “She doesn’t really like it when I’m hugging other girls, probably she’s jealous.”

But Mr. Malkin says both he and Natalia have fallen in love with the city of Pittsburgh.