Sidney Crosby made more history last night, joining Danny Martaugh, Roberto Clemente and Mario Lemieux as the only 3 time recipients of the Sportsman of the Year award at the 82nd annual Dapper Dan dinner and sports auction last night. NHL.com had a great write-up:

“You couldn’t mold out of clay a better representative for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and for Mario Lemieux and his legacy,” Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse said. “I think Sid has been an exemplary player, definitely, on the ice. But he has also been a model citizen off the ice. He’s the embodiment of what you hope you can get in sports, either as a management member of a team, an owner of a team or as a fan.” During Morehouse’s introductory speech, he referenced a conversation he had with Dan Rooney the first time Crosby won the award, where the legendary Steelers chairman expressed that exact sentiment. ”He was only 19 the first time he won Sportsman of the Year in 2006 and he was on his way to becoming the youngest player in NHL history to win a scoring title,” Morehouse said. “That night, another winner, Dan Rooney, took me aside and said ‘I really like that kid of yours.’ And he said, ‘I sure wish he was a football player.’ He went on to tell me he was so impressed with Sid and his manners and how down-to-earth he was, not even talking about how great of a hockey player and athlete he was.”

A constant for Crosby has been helping to get more kids involved in hockey who wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise:

“One of the first things Sid did when he came to Pittsburgh was he came to us and said he wanted to find a way for kids who couldn’t afford to play hockey to be able to play hockey,” Morehouse said. “So that’s when we came up with Sidney Crosby’s Little Penguins Learn to Play program, where Sid donates his money out of his pocket along with the Penguins, at the time Reebok and now Adidas, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. And we combined to buy free equipment for kids.” This year, they gave away 2,000 sets of head-to-toe equipment, meaning countless kids who wouldn’t have been exposed to the sport have now gotten an opportunity to try it out. ”And Pittsburgh, as a result, has led the U.S. in participation in the 10-and-under age group, which our target is 5-to-7 year olds,” Morehouse said. “It’s been an extraordinary effort, it’s his because he came to us and asked us to try to pull something together for him.”

Crosby had a nice zing too (well, you know for him anyways)

“We have an amazing fan base here, and whether it’s walking through the city, or 19,000 people yelling at me to shoot, yes, I do hear it -- the point is, we know your support is there everywhere we go,

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The biggest story in the sport right now is the results of the Women’s Olympic tournament. The US women finally got past their demons in Canada to bring home the gold medal for the first time in 20 years. The US team has actually won the last several world championships but always had that block in the Olympics by the Canadian women. Up until last night anyways. Amanda Kessel scored a goal in the shootout to help the cause.

The highlight of the game was the clinching goal on a dazzling move by Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson

Jocelyne Lamoureux shootout winner for Team USA Women in Gold Medal Game..Unreal pic.twitter.com/29aUrTZoOe — Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 22, 2018

These two stories mentioned here are obviously sharing a common tie involving growing the game and our great sport. Many young ladies in America were captivated by the success of the 1998 team. With social media and the highlight you see above, surely many more will be drawn to hockey now. Efforts made by folks like Crosby (and the Penguins in general with their initiatives to build new rinks) are also helping grow the game. Hopefully this will result years down the road with more great players male and female making noise from Western Pennsylvania in the sport of hockey.