Logan Couture had plenty of nice things to say about the Penguins' Sidney Crosby on Friday, praising the former league MVP and defending Conn Smythe Trophy winner for his play on the ice and the way he conducts himself off of it.
The two played together for the first time at the World Cup of Hockey, winning the tournament for Team Canada in late September.
Crosby expressed his admiration for Couture on Saturday morning, speaking with reporters before the Sharks and Penguins matchup later that night.
“Having not really played with him in the past, you see how good he is every day and how smart of a player [he is] offensively, but defensively, as well. He was killing penalties a lot. He’s just a really responsible two-way player,” Crosby said.
Couture said on Friday that Crosby and the other Sharks players on Team Canada, which also included Joe Thornton, Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, spent lots of time together despite the Penguins knocking off the Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final just three months earlier.
“They’re good guys,” Crosby said. “They’re fun to play [with] on the same team.
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“It’s crazy how things turn pretty quick here, and you [prepare to] compete against them tonight. I’m sure the intensity and the way it was in the playoffs will probably carry over. That’s the great thing about hockey is the ability to be able to do that. It was a lot of fun playing with them in that tournament.”
Crosby will be skating against the Sharks for the first time since the Stanley Cup Final. He missed the first six games of the season, including the Sharks-Penguins game in Pittsburgh on Oct. 20, with a concussion.
There were some memories of last June’s Cup clincher at SAP Center in his mind on Saturday morning.
“First time on the ice, first time in the dressing room here, that goes through your mind,” he said. “But, now you’re doing your morning skate and getting ready for the game, it feels like a normal game day like it has other times here. I think it will always be something that comes across your mind when you’re here, but now that we’re kind of back in the routine, it feels like it normally would.”
