Sidney Crosby arrest report refuted by Ottawa police

At around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, QMI News Agency dropped a neutron bomb on the sports world: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins captain and squeaky clean (off the ice, at least) face of the NHL, was arrested.

The report, cached here from the Ottawa Sun, read:

Pittsburgh Penguins centre Sidney Crosby was arrested by Ottawa Police late Tuesday while driving a rented Porsche, sources have told QMI Agency.

Reasons of his arrest were unknown, but appear to be driving related.

Sources say Crosby was taken to the Ottawa police headquarters on Elgin street for fingerprinting and a mugshot. It is unknown at this time why the NHL star was in Ottawa.

Ottawa Police have been unable to be reached for comment.

That last point was, perhaps, the most salient one. Because when contacted by actual media, Ottawa police said none of this ever happened:

The Ottawa police duty desk told The Canadian Press: “It never happened.”

Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau also tweeted that the police “have had no dealings with Mr. Crosby.”

The chief also told CTV News: “Sidney Crosby was not arrested, he never came in and he is not in a cell.”

Bringing this soup of incompetence to a rolling boil, remember when the Ottawa Sun wondered why Crosby was in Ottawa to begin with? Well, TSN reported that Crosby actually isn't there. He's in Colorado, training in Vail. 

We've now reached the part of this sordid tale in which it's entirely possible that a QMI reporter was told that Sidney Crosby was "out in Vail" and heard "Ottawa jail." Seriously. This could have been the thing that happened.

The Ottawa Sun promptly deleted its story, which, again, you can read here. Can an entire news agency claim it was hacked? Stay tuned to find out if and when they issue a statement!

So order is reestablished in the universe, and Claude Giroux is still (allegedly) the most dastardly NHL criminal in Ottawa this summer. For butt touching.

Excuse our ignorance of the Canadian legal system, and perhaps some of our readers from the Great White North can humo(u)r us with a response here, but would the arresting officer in a Sidney Crosby jailing sprain his wrist from all the high-fives in the precinct or be doubled over from all the punches to the gut for embarrassing a Canadian icon?