Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins to play exhibition game in Halifax Oct. 2

It's been 17 seasons since Cole Harbour's Sidney Crosby last played a hockey game in Halifax — Sept. 20, 2006, when the Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Ottawa Senators.

Now, nearly two decades later and no longer Sid the Kid, Crosby will be skating on the same ice surface when his Penguins play the Senators in an NHL pre-season game Oct. 2 at the Scotiabank Centre.

The Penguins announced the game on Friday.

In 2018, Crosby was named Nova Scotia's greatest athlete of all time, and for good reason.

He has captained Pittsburgh to three Stanley Cup wins, scored the golden goal to give Canada an overtime win at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and followed that by captaining Canada to another Olympic win in Sochi in 2014 when he scored again in the gold medal game.

Tickets for the pre-season game go on sale July 18 at 11 a.m. and are expected to be snapped up quickly.

Crosby, who turns 36 in August, may not be the only Nova Scotia star playing in the game. Drake Batherson of New Minas plays for Ottawa.

The Senators will be playing a pre-season game in Sydney, N.S., against Florida the night before the Halifax game, which is being billed as the Nova Scotia Showdown.