Finally the by-gawd, defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins showed up last night, taking it to the Nashville Predators by a score of 6-0 and taking control of the final series 3 games to 2. This one is not laid at the feet of one player… this one belongs to the team. The Nashville Predators got steamrolled last night, full marks to the Penguins. They showed up to play and completely dominated Nashville… that has been covered and I’m not going to relive it… there was very little Good, and there was a lot of Bad and Ugly.
Today, I want to bring up something that has been eating at me… I want to talk about the best player in the game right now, Sidney Crosby.
He has an amazing skill level, and frankly, he appears to have grown up… he no longer complains like he did in his first few years, he has matured and that maturity is good for the game of hockey… that being said… I want to talk about how Crosby is defended no matter what he does, normally with the excuse that he takes so much abuse that it is ok, he’s just defending himself.
Crosby mangles a player’s finger with a vicious slash… oh… he didn’t mean it. Slams someone’s head into the ice, again and again and again… oh… he was just trying to escape and besides… that player had it coming. Tosses a water bottle out on the ice… just kidding… Slewfoots an opponent… he’s just playing hard… butt ends a goal tender in the privates… spears someone in the privates… punches someone in the privates… hmmm… I see a trend developing here.
And again... Crosby is given the excuse of "he gets abused so much he has to give it back."
Well, news flash... every high skill player in this league takes abuse, every high skill player in this league gets hacked and whacked… Claude Giroux and Jamie Benn? Yup. Rick Nash and Patrice Bergeron? Uh-huh. Alex Ovechkin and Viadimir Tarasenko ? Oh yeah. Filip Forsberg? You betcha. Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid? Affirmative.
So why is Crosby a sacred cow? Why is Crosby so media protected? Why does the mainstream media go out of its way to defend everything he does? I wish I had an answer… Are we still buying this “poor Sidney” crap? Really? Here’s the kicker… Crosby isn’t doing the whining… it’s the mainstream hockey media, it’s the Hockey News and NBC and Sportsnet.
In my years of following this game, I don‘t think I have ever seen the amount of media whining and moaning about a single player. I don’t remember it happening about Gretzky or Lemieux or Esposito or Geoffrion. All players that certainly took their fair share of abuse over their careers.
But the Crosby Rules??? They are real… supported and driven by the mainstream media that covers this league to a point where it’s even aggravating some Penguin fans. It’s embarrassing… even in a supposedly critical piece on USA Today’s For the Win section just this morning…
At the tail end of the first period, and with the Penguins leading 2-0, Crosby and Subban clashed near the boards behind the net, with Crosby holding Subban down and repeatedly pushing his head into the ice.
The referees were occupied with action on the other end of the ice and didn’t seem to notice or ignored Crosby keeping Subban down for so long.
Ummm… hate to tell you… the freaking ref was standing right over them! I guess the only method of “escape” was pounding an opponent’s head on the ice… this from a player with concussion issues? Imagine if the roles and actions were reversed… what would the reaction be? The pitchforks and torches would be out before the first intermission.
Of course, you know what happened next… during the ensuing 4-on-4, Malkin scores making it 3-0. Game over, for the most part, but…
The Crosby Rules strike again as Crosby throws a water bottle in a fit of anger… anyone that buys that whole “Whoops” - “I didn’t mean it” act is an idiot. Y’know… maybe Crosby hasn’t matured as much as I give him credit for… that should’ve been 2 and 10, no question about it. From the NHL Rule Book...
53.2 Minor Penalty - ... A minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct plus a game
misconduct penalty shall be imposed on a player who throws his stick or any part thereof or any other object or piece of equipment outside the playing area in protest of an official’s decision.
But for Sid, no problem… we believe you. You weren't upset at the lack of a call... them water bottles are slippery little suckers...
Believe me, I know a player only does what he can get away with, we’ve seen that over and over again. I’m just way too tired of the excuses given to one player when there are at least 30+ other players in this league that get the exact same treatment on the ice… without the protection off the ice.
Attention hockey analysts everywhere… If you want to make excuses for skill players… OK… but can we do it for all… not just one?
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I wrote this on Twitter last night… and I still mean it today…
For those that were lucky enough to not see the first intermission on NBC… NBC analyst Milbury stated that Crosby was “cagey” and that Subban “had it coming.” Milbury doubled down on it in the second intermission. I’m sorry Mike… no one has having their head slammed into the ice repeatedly “coming” … no one.
I get that Milbury is paid to stir things up… but this idiotic “he had it coming” take is over the line… even for him.
OK... Penguin fans... flame away!
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