(SI.com)
The stick and gloves that Crosby tossed in the celebration have disappeared and haven’t been seen since.
The Hockey Canada equipment crew gathered all of the gear that was strewn about the ice, placed it in bins, delivered it to the locker room and placed it in each players locker. Crosby’s never made it.
“What happened in that case was a little out of whack,” Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s director of the men’s national team told the Globe and Mail. “On the ice, the doors where the Zamboni was were opened and people came out for the closing ceremonies right away. We’ve gone through the videos and photos and we can see volunteers pushing equipment away.”
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened to Crosby. You may remember that the jersey he wore to win gold in Grand Forks, North Dakota during that year’s World Junior Championships was stolen as he was traveling back to Canada. An arrest was eventually made in that case and the jersey was recovered. That is what one company is hoping can happen in this case.
Reebok Canada is offering a “no questions asked” $10,000 dollars for the safe return of Crosby’s Olympic gear.
“The stick and glove are priceless,” Len Rhodes, vice president and general manager for Reebok Hockey CCM, told the AP on Saturday night. “There’s absolutely no substitute for that exact stick and glove.”
Reebok has also set up an email hotline so that they can gather tips and information that might assist in the search. The company felt obliged to assist in finding the items because of their long time partnership with Crosby, who has been a member of their hockey family since he arrived on the scene back in 2005.
“He’s been a very close partner of ours and a member of the Reebok hockey family,” Rhodes said to the AP. “We just wanted to do what we thought was right.”
If the items are found, Reebok intends to return them to Crosby. At which point he would be able to decide on keeping them for his personal trophy case or donating them to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Walshy
March 7, 2010 at 4:55 am
If these items are priceless I think reebok need to offer up more than 10K. The peeps that took the gear are going to want more than that for it. I don’t think it’s right but that’s the harsh reality.
Coach K
March 7, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I agree with Walshy. Sad to say but whoever has Crosby’s gear is holding it for ransom. I believe that a true hockey fan would have returned the items by now, not held on to them waiting for a big payoff.