Sidney Crosby is passing a torch that will benefit Team Canada for ...

BOSTON — When Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal on home soil to win the gold medal for Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, he took a pass from Jarome Iginla, his linemate throughout the tournament.

It was Iginla’s fourth best-on-best tournament representing Canada, and Crosby’s first.

He was only 22 at the time, but Crosby had already won the Stanley Cup, the Hart Trophy and was already considered the best player in the world.

But he had never done this.

The 4 Nations Face-Off is Crosby’s fourth best-on-best tournament representing Canada. It is Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon’s first.

There is a symmetry there that is impossible to ignore when McDavid opens the scoring in a must-win game against Finland on Monday, MacKinnon scores what winds up being the winning goal off a pass from Crosby, and Crosby ices it at the end with an empty-netter from center ice after the Finns had stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to make it 4-3 with 1:17 left in regulation.

This is McDavid’s time. It is MacKinnon’s time. But what Crosby provides them — and Cale Makar and others who will make up the core of the Canadian national team for years as we kick off an international calendar with best-on-best tournaments every two years — is of enormous value.

Take Crosby’s reaction to Canada’s loss against the United States on Saturday as Exhibit A.

When asked a very general question on what made the difference in the game, Crosby pointed directly to his own turnover that led to Dylan Larkin’s game winner in the second period.

“It comes down to little mistakes here and there,” Crosby said, “and that turnover leads to a goal.”

After the 5-3 win against Finland that gave Canada another shot at the U.S. in the championship game Thursday, Crosby was asked if those little mistakes were a priority for him coming into the game considering how disappointed he was with that turnover.

It was a question about him. He answered on behalf of the team.

“I think so,” Crosby said. “We’ve got some great skill, great talent, guys that are committed to play both sides of the puck and we’ve got to give ourselves a chance just by the decisions we make and being in the right position. We did a better job of that today.”

The opening goal of the game came after McDavid got a puck at the offensive blue line and chipped it into the Finland zone, only to have Roope Hintz give it right back to him. McDavid didn’t have to chip that puck, and perhaps if he were playing Game 1 of 82 with the Edmonton Oilers, he would have instead tried to beat Nikolas Matinpalo at the blue line. With all due respect to Matinpalo, that is a matchup McDavid’s team will take 10 times out of 10.

But Matinpalo had a good gap on McDavid. He was trying to deny the Finnish blue line, so McDavid chipped it by him because that was the priority established by the coaching staff heading into the game. And McDavid was rewarded for it.

“The way we managed the puck, we’ve got the best players in the world doing things they’re probably not accustomed to for the benefit of our team winning hockey games,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said. “It was a 200-foot game. You’ve got McDavid, MacKinnon, Crosby and all these guys dumping pucks and going and getting them.

“It was the way we had to play to win this game, and we did it.”

Sidney Crosby upped his game in a must-win matchup against Finland to get Canada into the 4 Nations Face-Off final. (Bob DeChiara / Imagn Images)

Playing the way you need to play to win games like this does not come naturally to some of the best players in the world because these are not NHL games. It is learned behavior, just like it is learned behavior to play on a fourth line when you are accustomed to playing on the first line, or sitting and watching the power play from the bench when you are used to running it.

That chip from McDavid at the offensive blue line, MacKinnon doing the same thing — whatever it takes to win and whatever the team needs from you — is culture setting in.

And while this might seem shocking, Crosby refused to take any credit for that, at least when it comes to McDavid and MacKinnon.

“They’ve been through a lot of experiences prior to this and they have high expectations of themselves,” Crosby said. “They understand the pressure that comes with it. They’ve been dealing with it for a long time. … These guys are used to playing in these big games under the spotlight and delivering. They did again tonight.”

Crosby might not realize just how much he is influencing Canada’s international future in this event, and how he will surely continue doing that at the Olympics a year from now. He wouldn’t realize it because he doesn’t have to try to do it, doesn’t have to go out of his way: He just has to be himself and do what he always does. It resonates.

“It’s been eye-opening to see what it takes to be as good as he is,” Brayden Point said. “It’s just been awesome to be a part of a team that he’s on.”

And really, it’s not just the young players who have soaked in what Crosby has to offer them. This is Cooper’s first best-on-best tournament as Canada’s head coach, too.

“You see somebody from afar and you don’t want to be disappointed when you meet them in person,” Cooper said. “You want to meet your hero and you want them to be your hero. And honestly, a lot of times, it doesn’t happen. How many times have you said, ‘Aw man, I wish?’ You know, you looked at them in a certain light.

“Well, the light that you look at Sidney Crosby in, it’s still the same light when you meet him. He’s a true inspiration to all the young guys in that locker room, and even older guys. In our country, he walks on water, and he is as humble as they come. You can see why arguably he’s one of the most respected people in this game.”

Crosby is clearly playing in this tournament injured. It means that much to him. He wasn’t the best version of himself against Team USA on Saturday, but he was much closer on Monday to give himself and his team a chance at redemption Thursday.

And just by being around his Team Canada teammates, Crosby is doing what Iginla and others did for him back in 2010, when Canada lost to the U.S. in the preliminaries and beat it in the gold medal game.

That loss to the U.S. in 2010 set off a streak of 16 consecutive Canada wins in best-on-best competition, with Crosby as the centerpiece of that streak. Now, 15 years later, Canada is hoping another streak has started with this win against Finland — a streak that will not be fueled by Crosby, but rather McDavid and MacKinnon and Makar.

And the eye-opening light in which they see Crosby is very important.