Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon might be one of the biggest stars in the NHL, but he’s still got a bit of work left to do to impress Justin Bieber.

With Bieber appearing as one of four celebrity captains at this year’s NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, plenty of players lined up to go take their photo pregame with the pop star as he took warm-ups on Saturday.

One particular photo that drew interest was MacKinnon posed on one side of Bieber with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby flanking the other.

MacKinnon and Crosby have a longstanding connection, with the 2013 and 2005 first-overall NHL picks both hailing from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.

But many social media users, including @genosbest on X, noticed how, on Saturday’s broadcast of the game, Bieber seemed to get a little bit closer to Crosby than MacKinnon, possibly to crop him out of the photo.

justin leaned into sid like he fully plans to crop mackinnon out of that pic and then frame it pic.twitter.com/Avjdr83zjl

— jo 🐧 (@genosbest) February 3, 2024

And when Bieber actually uploaded the pic, well, that’s exactly what he did, sharing just him and Crosby as part of an Instagram carousel earlier today.

Fans couldn’t get enough of the snub from Bieber being correctly predicted:

no way we were all joking but he actually did it😂 https://t.co/3DXBeP2Sm8

— sunny☀️ (@Keat_sunny) February 5, 2024

The original source of Bieber’s crop job comes in the fifth photo here, with all shots taken by photographer Rory Kramer:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)

In addition to the picture with Crosby (and one-fifth of MacKinnon), Bieber also uploaded pics with Connor McDavid, William Nylander, and Auston Matthews.

In the finale of All-Star weekend, MacKinnon was joined by event headliner Tate McRae as his celebrity captain, while Bieber was on the bench alongside Auston Matthews and the three other Toronto Maple Leafs selected for the game.

Team Matthews ended up coming out as winners of the weekend, outlasting McDavid’s team 7-4 in the final of the four-team tournament.

The weekend also saw Bieber play his first gig in over a year when he performed an R&B set on Friday night at Toronto’s History venue.