In a red Tim Hortons truck, driver Sidney Crosby and passenger Nathan MacKinnon pull up to the restaurant’s drive-through ordering screen in the two hockey players’ native Halifax, Nova Scotia, area.

“Welcome to Tim Hortons,” says an unseen female. “What can I get for you?”

“Hi, I’ve got a big order coming for you here,” Crosby says. “A hundred and 35 coffees …”

MacKinnon is cracking up, and the female asks incredulously: “A hundred and 35 coffees?”

When she punches in that part of the order, it triggers an automated voice response: “The quantity entered exceeds maximum.”

After apparently placing the rest of a massive drink order, Crosby and MacKinnon pull up to the window. Workers, by now knowing what’s going on, have gathered there to see the two hockey stars, and when Crosby jovially asks if the order is ready, he says they will instead pull the truck around to the parking lot and come in for the coffee, orange juice, water and milk. In the lot, MacKinnon gets out and tries to guide Crosby — unsuccessfully at first — to back the truck into a spot between the lines.

It’s the first part of a Hortons commercial package Crosby and MacKinnon shot in late August, shortly before they reported to their respective World Cup of Hockey team training camps. Crosby eventually won gold with Team Canada, while MacKinnon was on the 23-and-under roster for Team North America. They both played their youth hockey in the Cole Harbour Bel Ayr Minor Hockey Association in the Halifax Regional Municipality and still consider the area their home,

The Hortons chain was named after and co-founded in 1964 by NHL defenseman Tim Horton, who was killed in an automobile accident while still playing in the NHL in 1974. Hortons is a Canadian institution, but now roughly 20 percent of its outlets are in the United States.

“It took about five hours,” MacKinnon, 21, said of the commercial shoot after the Avalanche’s Sunday morning practice at the Family Sports Center. “It was awesome.”

Crosby, at 29 the two-time winner of the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player and generally considered the best player in the world, suffered a concussion Oct. 7 and likely will continue to be out of the Penguins’ lineup Monday night when they meet the Avalanche at the PPG Center in Pittsburgh.

As a result, any reunion he has with MacKinnon probably will have to be off the ice.

MacKinnon, the winner of the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2014, signed a seven-year, $44.1-million contract with the Avalanche in the offseason and had a goal in Colorado’s 6-5 win over Dallas in the regular-season opener Saturday. That came after his spectacular overtime goal against Sweden in the World Cup’s preliminary round added to his reputation. He has a long way to go to catch up with Crosby, and since he’s not far removed from looking up to Crosby with awe as he dreamed of reaching the NHL himself, he knows it.

“The past couple of years, he’s become one of my best friends,” MacKinnon said. “We see each other every day in the summers training, or hanging out, or going on golf trips or whatever. We’ve become closer as I’ve gotten older.”

The commercials were packaged as three “stops”:

“Tims Run, Stop 1: Loading Up,” involves picking up the huge order in the truck.

“Tims Run, Stop 2: Game On,” shows Crosby and MacKinnon visiting a kids’ street hockey game.

“Tims Run, Stop 3: Fire Drill,” features the hockey stars’ visit to a firehouse.

The campaign is a bit of a sequel, since a year ago Crosby and MacKinnon — with only marginal competence — manned the drive-through window at Hortons for another campaign. One of the funniest moments was when Crosby asked a woman customer at the screen, who still hadn’t seen him and MacKinnon, to name a hockey player from the area for a free cup of coffee. As had several others before her had done, she cited Crosby.

“From Cole Harbour, who else comes to mind?” Crosby asked.

“Oh,” said the woman, rolling her head back and racking her brain. “There’s this guy who just got drafted a year ago. Last name begins with an ‘M.’ Um … McGinnis!”

“Thank you so much,” MacKinnon said.

MacKinnon also has appeared on, and is a huge fan of, the long-running Canadian television series “Trailer Park Boys.”

Does he have his actors’ union card?

He laughed and said he actually got a letter from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

“If I paid, I could be a certified actor,” he said.

COLORADO AT PITTSBURGH 5 p.m. Monday, ALT, 950 AM

SPOTLIGHT ON: Marc-Andre Fleury. The veteran Penguins goalie and No. 1 pick of the 2003 draft served as backup to rookie Matt Murray as Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup in June. But Fleury is back in the No. 1 role by default, because Murray is recovering from the broken hand he suffered while playing for Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey. Fleury, 31, is 16-3-1 with a 2.09 goals-against average and .928 save percentage in his last 20 home starts.

Avalanche: After Sunday morning’s practice at Family Sports Center, Colorado coach Jared Bednar said Calvin Pickard will get the start in the net against Pittsburgh, with Semyon Varlamov set to play against his former team, the Capitals, on Tuesday in Washington. … Center John Mitchell, who is on the active roster and skating on his own but isn’t practicing because of a hip injury, didn’t make the trip. … Rene Bourque didn’t practice Sunday. “He’s got a little soreness in the lower body,” Bednar said, but also indicated he thought Bourque would be ready to go against the Penguins. … Bednar said of the defensive mistakes in the wild 6-5 win over Dallas in the regular-season opener Saturday night: “It’s all correctable. We worked on that a little bit today. The mistakes that I felt cost us were up-ice. So you saw today we worked on our forecheck and our neutral zone forecheck just to make sure we’re not having any breakdowns out there that lead to odd-man rushes against because that’s where I thought we got hurt a little bit last night.” … The four-game swing continues at Tampa against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and at Florida on Saturday.

Penguins: They are concluding a three-game, season-opening homestand and looking to go 3-0. They are coming off 3-2 wins over Washington (shootout) and Anaheim. … Pittsburgh has won eight of its last 10 games against Colorado. … Forward Matt Cullen, 39, had an assist Saturday to pass Mark Recchi as the fourth-oldest player to record a point as a Penguin. He trails Joe Mullen (40 years, 38 days), Mario Lemieux (40 years, 72 days) and Gary Roberts (41 years, 214 days). … The Pens are 2-0 for the fifth time in the past six years, and they are the first defending Stanley Cup champions to begin 2-0 since Pittsburgh did it in 2009-10.

— Mike Chambers and Terry Frei, The Denver Post