Monday, November 21, 2011

The Return of Sidney Crosby

My thoughts on the return of Sidney Crosby. I actually took half the day off work so I could catch the entire game. Didn't want to miss a minute of Crosday!

The Isles "win" the Sidney Crosby Lottery
When they first announced Crosby would return against the Islanders the only thing that I could think of was the Pittsburgh bench with 4 players on it. You know, last year when the Isles sucker punched Max Talbot and concussed Eric Tangradi and Brent ‘MoFo’ Johnson decided to beat the snot out of Rick Depietro. Yeah that. I mean sure the Isles, who have yet to win an away game this season, seem like a easy win but it made me nervous.

Captain Canada
So I hear this title goes to Ryan Smyth but until BOTH CBC and Versus interrupt regularly scheduled programming to nationally feature Smyth returning from an injury, I will continue to call Sidney Crosby Captain Canada. And I would argue that most of the NHL would too. Yes he’s The Face of The Game but he’s not just the NHL poster boy he is the face of Canada in the game as well. Sure the league is dominated by Canadians but Sid IS this eras Great One. He is Canada’s most famous active hockey player.

The Game
On his first shift he almost gets an assist and on his second he scores. Crosby screamed "FUCK YEAH" and NHL fans everywhere echoed that sentiment. He went on to play seconds short of 16 minutes and get 4 points. More importantly than his large point tally, his presence elevated the Penguins game as a whole. Not only was their much more fire under all their skates but things like their struggling Power Play was improved. Even after such a long absence Crosby showed patience and remained unselfish setting up many teammates including Orpik and Malkin (Malkin numerous times, only one of which he scored on.)

As for contact, Sidney took an easy crosscheck but that was about it. The real test will be when he plays teams with more grit like Montreal or teams with less morals like Boston.

The Take Away
Ovechkin is a lazy douche. Yes, that’s what I am taking away from this. So many people for the last several years have debated who is better Sid or Ovie. Sidney Crosby’s injury left the door wide open for Alexandre Ovechkin to run away with the league. Literally. Ovie could have owned the league in scoring, in assists, in penalty minutes - in ANYTHING. But he did absolutely nothing of value. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Zip.

Let’s face it, Ovechkin has 15 points so far this season. If Crosby averages 4 points a game he will pass that in 4 games. There is no debate. Sidney Crosby is a better hockey player than Alexandre Ovechkin. End of story. The only debate is why. Is Ovechkin simply not as skilled or is he just incredibly lazy. Discuss.
(The answer is both)

2 comments:

  1. Whats crosby been up to latly? Eating ovechkin's dust in the standings and scoring race, some superior hockey player. Not even the best player in his not playoff team.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whats crosby been up to latly? Eating ovechkin's dust in the standings and scoring race, some superior hockey player. Not even the best player in his not playoff team.

    ReplyDelete