On the Penguins: Criticism of Crosby's comments off base
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Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has missed five games due to a concussion.
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Sidney Crosby is the most polarizing figure in the NHL.
He has thousands, maybe millions, of admirers who believe he can do no wrong. (Unless he wanted to do wrong, of course, in which case those folks are certain he could do it better than anyone ever has.) At the same time, he has legions of detractors who seem to think he's just a gene or two shy of being evil incarnate. And who will feel that way forever, or at least until Crosby starts to wear the colors of the team they happen to follow.
The reality, as usual, is somewhere between the extremes.
Crosby is as earnest and committed to his craft as anyone in hockey. He seems to have a deep, genuine respect for the game and everything about it.
He also has a tendency to express his feelings, often in a fairly animated manner, to officials and opposing players when he's on the ice. Not the ideal way to win friends and influence people. Especially people who have a built-in disdain for Crosby because of the sweater he wears.
He's taken a pretty good beating in some quarters lately, though, from people purported to be objective observers. People who contend that, although Crosby spoke publicly about his feelings on blows to the head after he suffered a concussion earlier this month, he was silent after teammate Matt Cooke gave Boston's Marc Savard a concussion with a blindside hit to the head in March.
"Crosby didn't say a whole lot then," commentator Keith Jones, a former NHL forward, told the Versus audience between the second and third periods of the Penguins' game against Boston this past Monday.
Jones' comment came in the wake of a few similar blasts sent his way during a roundtable discussion among prominent media members on TSN, a Canadian network, the day before.
First Published January 16, 2011 12:00 am
