Real reason why Sidney Crosby missed All-Star Draft revealed

NHL All-Star Weekend officially kicked off on Thursday with the players’ draft and surprisingly Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby did not attend.

When the team of Nathan MacKinnon, whose celebrity captain Tate McRae, selected Crosby, the Penguins’ captain was not the one on the ice to skate over to his club and get his jersey. Instead, it was a young kid from the Tim Hortons Timbits program who came on Crosby’s behalf.

It was revealed that Crosby had a prior engagement, and since he only takes part in the actual All-Star Game on Saturday and does not feature in any of the All-Star Skills competitions, Crosby choose to focus on the current season and was skating in Montana today, as explained by team insider Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports.

“Sidney Crosby isn’t here for all this today. That’s the NHL’s fault for making the skills day the way they did tomorrow, where not everyone participates. No reason for Crosby to be here this early.

“He’s skating. In Montana. Because of course he is:”

“I didn’t even know he wasn’t going to be here,” MacKinnon said after the Player Draft.

“I saw his video (which played prior to the draft). I didn’t even know. But yeah, it’ll be cool to play with him in an All-Star Game. We’ve got some good leadership on the team now, and hopefully we can win it.”

 Crosby will be in Toronto in time for the Game with his team that includes his buddy MacKinnon, Cale Makar, goalie Alexander Georgiev, Kirill Kaprizov, Sebastian Aho, Tom Wilson, netminder Jeremy Swayman, Travis Konecny, new Vancouver Canuck Elias Lindholm and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

MacKinnon also revealed that he made a deal with the other teams in order to get his friend Crosby on his roster.

“I asked Quinn and Jack (Hughes) if they wouldn’t draft him. Their request was that I didn’t take (Brock) Boeser,” MacKinnon said. “There are so many Canucks players, it’s hard not to take any of them. But it was all fun.”

And Crosby will be there for the fun of the game on Saturday.

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