Sidney Crosby came back from an injury and scored to remind everyone he’s still the best player in the world, but that’s not going to silence his critics.
Sidney Crosby is a generational talent, and the most accomplished hockey player since Wayne Gretzky. At just 29 years old, his trophy cabinet includes two Art Ross trophies, two Hart trophies, a Rocket Richard, a Conn Smythe, two Stanley Cups, two Olympic Gold medals, a World Championship, and a World Cup of Hockey. He’s an exclusive member of the Triple Gold Club, and was the only member to captain all of those teams.
And already this season, Crosby is showing how important he is to the Pittsburgh Penguins. After the World Cup took a toll on him physically, he had to sit the first six games of the season. But he slowly worked his way back from injury, and by scoring in his first game back, you’d have to think he’s in great condition.
Let’s face it, the Pittsburgh Penguins are an average team without Sidney Crosby. When he missed the second half of the 2010-11, they went through a tailspin, then lost in the first round. 2011-12 was another injury-riddled season for him, and they lost in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers, yet he still had eight points in that series.
And without Crosby to start the season, the Penguins went 3-3. They never scored more than three goals in a game, and suffered humiliating defeats to the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators. But in his first game back in the Pens’ lineup, he scored the goal that set in motion a comeback from 2-0 down.
When Crosby plays for the Penguins, they’re world beaters. It’s the reason why people hate him, yet don’t carry any ill will towards Connor McDavid. If anything, people are sympathetic towards him due to the fact that he’s on the Edmonton Oilers. Even if he has a 120-point season this year, it still might not be enough to get the Oilers to the playoffs.
His talent, and importance to his team, shouldn’t be questioned. Yet people still find ways to call someone like Jonathan Toews better than him, and criticize his game because he’s a whiner. With Crosby finally back in the fold, it felt like an appropriate time to run through the list of reasons why people hate him, and point out how stupid they really are.
He’s a whiner
By far the biggest complaint about Crosby is the fact that he whines to the refs if someone so much as touches him. He’ll often get calls in favor of him, but when he goes out and instigates things with the opposition, the ref will swallow their whistle.
Admittedly, it’s a drawback of his, and one that he demonstrated especially early in his career. If Nazem Kadri can get under the skin of Sidney Crosby, then you know that people will criticize him for it. But he isn’t good because he gets calls – he gets calls because he’s good. And if a player gets under his skin and causes him to lash out like that, he’ll often find a way to channel that towards scoring goals.
The fact that people criticize him for doing this is a double-edged sword. One of the roles a player has as a captain is consulting with the ref regarding the rules. When a player like Jonathan Toews does it, everyone applauds him for being a leader and standing up for his teammates, but when Crosby does it, he’s “Cindy Crybaby.” And sure, the video evidence is pretty damning, but who’s to say Toews doesn’t lash out like that when he’s not mic’d up?
As the face of the league, cameras are going to be on him through most of the game, so when Crosby whines, it gets magnified over when other people do it.
He dives
This is somewhat tied to the whining, and the fact that he gets calls. But a lot of NHL players dive, and Crosby’s hardly the worst person who does it. Seeing him do it and get a call in favor of him may bother some, but you can’t call out Crosby for diving and not do the same for Ryan Kesler.
His Olympic contributions
Even though Sidney Crosby has two Olympic Gold medals to his name, his contributions in them resemble someone who did nothing in the group project but still got an A. The best player in Sochi was Carey Price, while in 2010, it was Jarome Iginla. He got a hattrick in the opening game, and it was his effort that set up the overtime winner that Americans are still salty about:
But because Crosby scored the goal, he was given all the credit for Canada’s win. Same thing in 2014: he only scored one goal, but it was in the Gold Medal game. It’s the reason why, in the Penguins’ first game since that goal, Ryan Miller got a better reception than Crosby, and why Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals fans, who already hate his guts, had even more of a reason to do so.
But if he’s able to stand out on a team that’s as deep as Canada, he’s clearly doing something right. And the World Cup of Hockey might have been his best offensive showing on the international stage. He finished as the tournament’s leading scorer and MVP, and boosted Brad Marchand’s stock so much that some even considered the possibility of him getting traded to the Penguins.
Performance in the playoffs
Perhaps the biggest misconception about Crosby is that he’s a bad playoff performer. After all, since drafting Crosby, the Penguins have made the playoffs in every season but his rookie year, yet they’ve only won the Cup twice.
Winning the Cup is a complete team effort though, and if anything, he and Evgeni Malkin are the last people that should be blamed whenever the Penguins come up short. Among active NHL players, Crosby sits third all time in playoff points – he’s 12 points behind Marian Hossa for second despite playing 77 fewer games. Malkin sits right behind Crosby in fourth place.
Even in the Penguins’ most recent Cup run, people found a way to criticize him. Crosby finished with 19 points in 24 games – how dare he average less than a point per game?!! – and even though he won the Conn Smythe, many people believed Phil Kessel deserved it. While Kessel did put up better numbers, Crosby’s defensive contributions went under the radar. And while Kessel was on a line with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino, Sid was playing with Conor Sheary and Patric Hornqvist.
Final verdict
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion on Crosby, and if you’re a Flyers or Caps fan, you probably feel obliged to hate him. But even if that’s the case, everyone should appreciate his greatness instead of coming up with bad excuses to hate on him.
Even though Wayne Gretzky is regarded as the greatest hockey player of all-time, and someone who is pure class, not everyone enjoyed him during his playing days. To this day, there are some Leafs fans who are still not over that high stick. When Sid steps away from the game, all of his critics will be the first ones to recognize him as the best player of their generation.
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Nobody ever recognizes how great someone truly is until they retire. And with Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid getting off to scintillating starts this season, it’s tempting to put them above Crosby. But until he suffers a serious decline, there’s nobody else who gets to enjoy the title of best player in the world. And despite spotting the rest of the league nine points, don’t be surprised if he ends up winning the scoring race.