By the time he was 18, Sidney Crosby was already a world-class NHL player.
A world-class pet owner? Not as much.
During an appearance on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, a Barstool Sports production hosted by former Pittsburgh Penguins players Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney, Crosby told a story from his first pro season when he lived with Mario Lemieux and his family.
They convinced him to get a dog.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I need a dog right now,’” Crosby said. “I can barely do my own laundry.”
One night, returning home after a game, his nose let him know something had gone wrong while he was at work.
“I come back after the game and I smell something. I’m like, ‘What is that?’” Crosby said. “The puppy definitely (pooped) somewhere in the house. I’ve got to find out where this is.
“So I’m like looking everywhere, all over the house. Finally, I come around the corner and he’s cleaning up all this (poop) everywhere in the kitchen. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I’m so embarrassed.’ Mario Lemieux’s cleaning up my dog (poop). This is so backwards. This should not be happening.”
Crosby still has the dog, he noted.
“Fourteen-year-old Sam,” Crosby said.
Crosby is one of the most interviewed athletes in all of sports, but a long-form appearance on a podcast was rare. Bissonnette and Whitney, as friends and former teammates, got him to open up on a variety of topics.
He discussed his reaction to the Penguins winning the draft lottery, his rivalry with Alex Ovechkin, being injured during Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, his relationship with Marc-Andre Fleury and his confrontation with P.K. Subban during the 2017 finals.
During a rare moment of actual hockey conversation, Crosby revealed the one part of his game he’s working the hardest on as he gets older.
“Speed,” Crosby said. “That’s just part of getting older is you slow down a little bit. You’ve just got to slow that curve.”
