A hockey family in maritime Canada

Troy Crosby was a junior-level goalie who reached the QMJHL but never made the NHL — Montreal cut him in training camp in 1985. He worked as a ferry-boat captain in Halifax for most of Sidney’s childhood. Trina Crosby (Sidney’s mother) worked as a hospital orderly. The family lived in a 3-bedroom house at 8 Glasgow Court in Cole Harbour from 1987 to 2001. Sidney’s younger sister Taylor played goalie at Northeastern University; she’s the only sibling in the family.

The basement laundry room at 8 Glasgow Court became one of hockey’s most-famous training settings. Troy Crosby’s old dryer — placed against the back wall behind a kid-sized hockey net — accumulated thousands of dent marks over Sidney’s years of slap-shot practice. The family eventually replaced the dryer in 2003; the dented original is on display at the Cole Harbour Place arena (renamed The Sidney Crosby Hockey Arena in 2009).

From Cole Harbour to QMJHL stardom at 14

Sidney played minor hockey for the Cole Harbour Red Wings (Atom level) and the Dartmouth Subways (Bantam, Midget). At age 14, in 2002, he scored 217 points in 81 games for the Dartmouth Subways. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League changed its eligibility rules to allow him in early — at age 15. He played two seasons with the Rimouski Océanic (2003-05), winning the 2005 Memorial Cup tournament MVP at age 17.

By his second QMJHL season (2004-05) Sidney was already on the cover of Sports Illustrated and had been featured in Wayne Gretzky’s autobiography (Gretzky, asked who would break his records, named Crosby). The Pittsburgh Penguins won the 2005 NHL Lottery — colloquially called the ‘Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes’ — and selected him #1 overall in July 2005.

Cole Harbour after Crosby

Cole Harbour has become one of hockey’s most-visited pilgrimage sites. The Cole Harbour Place arena was renamed The Sidney Crosby Hockey Arena in 2009 (reverted to the public name in 2018 after Crosby asked for it back, though one rink inside is still called the Crosby Rink). The Crosby family no longer owns the Glasgow Court house; the new owners installed a small plaque outside in 2010.

Crosby’s brother-in-law (Taylor’s husband) Jordan Forrest is from Cole Harbour. Crosby returns most off-seasons. He bought a 12,000 sq ft house in nearby Aerial View Estates in 2017 and now spends part of his summers training at the Cole Harbour rink with his old youth-hockey teammates — many of whom became NHL or AHL players themselves.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Sidney Crosby and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).