Crosby Is An Absolute Joke

Susie Crosby in the box where he belongs.

Before this series, I never really understood the venom that was directed toward Sidney Crosby by Flyers fans.  I thought that Flyers fans disliked him mainly because he was one of the best players in the league.  But after Game 3 it has become obvious to me that Crosby is an extremely dirty player.  He started the scrum in the first period, the scrum in the third, and overall he forced his team mates to fight his battles for him.  

The first fight started by Crosby came in the first period.  The Penguins were down 3-1, when Bryzgalov covered up the puck.  From there Crosby proceeded to jab away at Bryzgalov's glove, and was eventually stopped by Claude Giroux who pulled him away from Bryz.  From there a whole series of scrums opened up all due to Crosby. The fighting eventually died down until Crosby kicked away Jake Voracek's glove as he was bending down to pick up. 

When asked after the game why he did that Crosby responded:

 "I do not like any guy on their team.  It [his glove] was near me and he went to pick it up and I pushed it."

Directly after, Crosby surprised Kimmo Timonen who eventually had to fight Kris Letang.  Giroux tried to take care of Crosby but the refs weren't willing to let Crosby and Giroux really go at it.  But Crosby wasn't done.

In the third period, Crosby grabbed Scot Hartnell from behind and dragged him into the boards.  Scott Hartnell retaliated, but was forced to fight Craig Adams who landed a bunch of cheap shots on Hartsy and eventually ended up pulling his hair.  Again another fight started by Susie, and another fight that he himself didn't actually fight. 

At this juncture of the game, Flyers color analyst Chris Therien was directly calling out Crosby for his dirty tactics.  While Crosby is almost always given a pass because he is the "golden boy" of the NHL, yesterday he was exposed as a dirty player.  

Scott Hartnell put it perfectly:

“It’s not fun to play with that kind of stuff.  You ask the best player in the world, Sidney Crosby, what they were thinking out there and he said ‘well, that’s playoff hockey,’ For me, that’s not playoff hockey. It’s dangerous hockey, it’s trying to hurt some people out there and it’s scary, you’ve got to keep your head up at all times. Crosby comes in and grabs me from behind and another guy [Craig Adams] comes and throws about eight bombs at the back of my head." 

Hockey is a violent game.  Players on both sides get frustrated, and fights do happen in hockey.  If you are frustrated that your team is losing both the game and the series, don't resort to childish games such as jabbing at the goalie's glove, kicking away someone's glove, or grabbing someone unexpectedly from behind.  

Crosby wasn't the only player who resorted to dirty tactics in the game.  After Brayden Schenn made a nice perfectly legal hit, Aaron Asham responded by cross checking him in the throat and punching him when he was down on the ice.  And when the puck wasn't even near Sean Couterier, James Neal came over and laid a ferocious blind side hit on the young star.  Both players will have disciplinary hearings tomorrow and I expect the league to come down extra hard on Neal who left the ice when making his hit on Couterier.  

Overall Crosby and the Penguins played with zero class in yesterday's game.  It was an absolute joke to watch as they used every dirty tactic they could think of to try and frustrate the Flyers.  But in reality the plan back fired and they ended up only frustrating themselves.  On Wednesday night, I hope the Flyers are able to land the knock out punch and send the Penguins packing for an early vacation.