The NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off is the first time the league's players have had best-on-best hockey since the 2016 World Cup. That was the last time Sidney Crosby represented Team Canada in any capacity, captaining his team to gold and winning tournament MVP.

This Canada roster is stacked with talent that wasn't on that 2016 World Cup team -- the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mitch Marner, to name a few.

But in Canada's opening 4-3 overtime win over Sweden here at the Bell Centre on Wednesday, a 37-year-old Crosby made clear that he's still Canada's best of the best.

Any remaining notions that this tournament is nothing more than a "glorified All-Star Game" were squashed within the first minute of the game. Canada got an early power play, courtesy of a William Nylander high-stick on Nathan MacKinnon, and on came the first unit of Crosby, MacKinnon, McDavid, Makar and Sam Reinhart. It took all of 12 seconds for MacKinnon to capitalize on the man advantage and give Canada the early lead.

All respect to MacKinnon ... but his finish wasn't the most impressive part of that sequence. McDavid found Crosby below the right circle. Crosby found MacKinnon with a backhand pass for the primary assist.

A no-look backhand pass.

Through the legs of Swedish defenseman Mattias Ekholm:

Filip Gustavsson stood no chance in net on that one. When McDavid and Crosby are passing the puck back and forth to your left, you're going to be drawn over to that side of the cage. Crosby got the puck over to MacKinnon so quickly, Gustavsson just wasn't able to get over in time.

Canada took a 2-0 lead into first intermission after Brad Marchand doubled the lead off a 2-on-1, but Sweden cut that lead in half in the second period when Jonas Brodin got a snap shot past Jordan Binnington. After being significantly outmatched in the first period, Sweden was pushing in the second, and they were pushing hard for a tying goal.

Until Crosby did it again.

Mark Stone forced a turnover in Canada's end, and sprung Crosby on a rush in the other direction. Crosby blew past Gustav Forsling, then had Forsling on his back trying to steal the puck right back. Crosby held Forsling off and protected the puck long enough for a trailing Stone to catch up. Crosby found Stone in the slot for the finish:

Sweden played their best hockey in the third period and netted goals from Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek to force overtime.

Crosby didn't get much playing time in overtime, with coach Jon Cooper deferring more to the likes of McDavid, MacKinnon and Marner. Crosby only had one shift in the first five minutes of the extended three-on-three overtime. His second shift came as the extra frame was nearing the six-minute mark, and he found Marner with a drop pass at the end of his shift. Marner carried the puck into Sweden's end and scored to secure the win:

"I mean, I was on the bench when he scored," Crosby said with a grin when asked about the play. "You know, I just looked to my right. I saw we had a guy changing and just wanted to keep possession. I saw that he was behind. And obviously, everyone sees the goal that he scores."

Three assists, all primary. He set up all but one of Canada's goals. Marner may have scored the goal that sealed the win, but it was Crosby who was named the No. 1 star and Canada's player of the game.

The ending was a dream come true for Marner ... with Crosby's part in it being just as important to him as the goal itself.

"You tell 10-year-old Mitch that he scored an overtime goal assisted by Sidney Crosby, the guy you looked up to since Day. 1?" Marner said. "Ever since Day 1, it's been 87. That's all I wore growing up, it's all I cheered for. It's a really cool pinch-me moment there, for sure."

McDavid said that a performance like that one from Crosby was pretty much on par with what he was expecting when Crosby confirmed his availability for this tournament.

"Really impressive," McDavid said. "It started right from the start with a great play on the power play there. He was just great all night. It's amazing to watch."

Cooper has been Crosby's coach for all of one game and a couple of practices. And still, he said he could "write a book" on his brief time with Crosby.

"Just his demeanor on the bench," Cooper raved. "He says all the right things at the right time. And then you need a lift, and the teams pushing. He's the one that sets up the helper. And then you need a lift in overtime, and he's the one that sets it up."

The win improved Canada's win streak with Crosby in the lineup to 26 straight games. He hasn't lost a game in a Canada sweater since the preliminary round of the 2010 Olympics.

"There's no coincidence, his record when he's wearing a Canadian jersey," Cooper said. "That's not a fluke. He will go down as the greatest player to ever represent his country. If not, he's going to be on the Mount Rushmore, for sure, of people that have thrown the Canadian jersey on."

The praise Crosby received here from his coach and teammates almost paled in comparison to the treatment from the Canadian fans. It started in warmups -- anytime he was shown on the videoboard, the volume of the cheers in the Bell Centre was already incredible. Then, when he was introduced first in the starting lineups, it was deafening:

"The roof was coming off," Cooper said. "You know, he's been a Pittsburgh Penguin his whole life. And that just shows you how much people care about him and respect him in this country. If I thought of the top three or four moments of this, it would be the ovation Sidney Crosby received from this. What a crowd."

Crosby was appreciative of the reception, calling it "something special that I'll always remember."

These international, best-on-best tournaments tend to set the stage for one player to step up and steal the show. Crosby is showing here that he's still that guy.