No, Sidney Crosby didn’t spit on Evgeny Kuznetsov
Wait, did Sidney Crosby really just spit on another player?
There are so many things going on in the Pittsburgh Penguins-Washington Capitals series it’s so hard to keep up with everything. From Tom Wilson’s big hit on Brian Dumoulin in Game 2 to his big hit last night on Zach Aston-Reese, and now a video some people think shows Sidney Crosby spitting on Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Oh, was the Capitals being up 2-1 in the series mentioned? Nope, because it hasn’t been close to the biggest story of this series so far through three games.
But what hockey fans are talking about today is the incident involving public enemy No. 1, Crosby. In case, you haven’t seen the video yet, you can examine the evidence below.
This is what they reference. Someone cut the video at the point Sid lurches forward. They don’t have it with Sid being pulled back by Ovi then pushed forward by Ovi. It creates the whiplash look of spitting. pic.twitter.com/oSxDwLJNyV
— X Solvem Probler Penguin (@JMikeyMania) May 2, 2018
As the video shows, Crosby is pulled back by Alex Ovechkin and then pushed forward by him too. It’s basically a whiplash effect. There’s nothing that comes out of his mouth in that replay and Crosby isn’t the kind of player that would do that to someone on the ice. Brett Connolly also said that this morning in the Caps locker room.
Brett Connolly on #CrosbySpitGate: "I don't know if he actually spit. You'd have to ask him. It kind of looked like someone grabbed the back of his jersey, too, so maybe it was kind of a jerk reaction. Who knows? ... I don't think that's his character."
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 2, 2018
Had Crosby actually spat on Kuznetsov, it would be the biggest story in sports today, because of the player involved and the scandalous and cheap nature of it all.
Overall, it didn’t happen as the replay above shows.
As far as other notes in this series, Wilson will have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Wednesday for an illegal check to the head to Aston-Reese. If he’s suspended for any time in this series, it’s expected Devante Smith-Pelly will replace him on the top line with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov.
Game 4 will take place Thursday night in Pittsburgh at 7:00 p.m. ET and there’s sure to be a lot of drama in that game. If Washington wins, they’d take a 3-1 series lead going back to Washington for Saturday’s game.