Last night at Verizon Center I was implored by my press box colleagues to eyeball the video of Sidney Crosby’s ambush of Florida’s Brett McLean earlier in the day. Suspecting an incendiary motive among them, I waited until I arrived home from the game. By puck-drop between the Caps and Rags last night, I was already aware that with their most recent humiliation, at the hands of the Southeast’s third-place Panthers, the Penguins had free-fallen to ninth place in the Eastern conference, a mere week’s worth of additional losses away from residing with the likes of Toronto. Our defending Eastern conference champions, were the season to end today, would be golfing. So why react to whatever Crosby had done in an already inflamed state, right?
Back home I was nauseated by what I saw. Not so much by Crosby’s faceoff circle crimes (plural) against McLean (about which he would lie afterward to the media), but by the reaction of all those godforsaken powder-blue-sweatered in the Mellon Arena stands. They reacted as if their captain had honorably dropped his gloves, engaged a longstanding tormentor, and bloodied him fair and square. I’d have understood their boisterous ovation more if they’d all been wearing visors. No doubt you’ve seen the video a half dozen times already, which on Schadenfreude Sunday is why I’d have you watch again:
The Florida announcing team, which includes somebody who should know better — Hall of Famer Dennis Potvin — got it wrong in their call. No one from Michel Therrien to the Mellon Arena ushers should have been pleased by Sidney Crosby’s actions against McLean. They were an affront to the Code — acts of ambush are outrageous in our sport, whether the author is Marty McSorley or Sidney Crosby. And Saturday’s attack by Sidney occurred hard on the heels of the Penguins’ captain slamming his fist into the jewel case of Atlanta’s Boris Valabik.
Speaking of weakened sacks, the NHL of course will once again remain silent on felonious behavior by its poster boy. If anything, Colin Campbell will spend his Sunday composing a memo to the Florida Panthers outlining his expectations of their being on their best behavior when next the two teams meet. There’s millions of dollars of Madison Avenue invested in the perp, you know.
In the NHL’s Golden Era, very pre- Colin Campbell and Gary Bettman, actions like Crosby’s Saturday would have been addressed forcefully and somewhat discretely, in a corner courtroom gaveled by Judge Howe or Lindsay. Obviously, that won’t be happening this week.
Instead, we in D.C. can content ourselves with the ethos and ethic employed by our superstar, who this week himself was in the headlines for his involvement in on-ice violence. On Friday Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman and ex-Cap Jamie Heward, upon learning that it was Alexander Ovechkin who freight-trained him into unconsciousness the night before, dismissed any and all controversy with the hit, calling Ovechkin “One of the cleanest players in the NHL.”
“Once I found out it was Alex, he’s in my opinion, he’s probably one of the cleanest players in the NHL as far as being honest,” Heward said. “He’ll play hard on you, but now that I know it was him, I know it wasn’t intentional. I played with him for two years. We were pretty tight when I played there. I totally agree, and I think it was an accident.”
9 Comments
In no way should the word ‘fight’ be used in context with what Crosby did. I’m guessing that the only reason McLean had a bloddy nose is that his face was slammed into the ice at the end of the mugging. The next Florida / Pittsburgh game will be one to watch.
Right you are, Brian. And that rematch is March 5, in Florida. Panthers’ fans should toss rats onto the ice again that night.
What I find outrageous is that McLean was given 5 for fighting as well. I guess the logic was that he didn’t have to take the face off and put himself in a position of being mugged.
Every time I watch that video I get angrier. I hope every Penguins opponent re-watches Crosby’s cowardly attack before they play, and that the Crosby has to skate the rest of the season with his head on a swivel, a cringe permanently affixed to his face (until someone’s fist knocks it off).
Wow. Is this the real Crosby starting to show through? I don’t remember him behaving like this when he was in the Quebec juniors, but then I don’t think he faced much real adversity when he was there. Maybe someone who has better recollection of his days in Rimouski can fill us in?
I have to admit, I am starting to wonder about the wisdom of putting 18-year-olds into the NHL without some pro experience in the minors first. Would Crosby have been behaving like this if he had had a chance to mature a bit in the pros first? Not drawing any conclusions here, just wondering aloud…
And BTW, as much as I love OFB, Ovechkin, and all things Washington Capitals (and I mean all that sincerely), I do remember complaints about Ovechkin’s show-boating behaviour at the 2005 World Junior Championships. Its a pretty different Ovie we see today–enthusiastic and energetic, sure, but with his head screwed on pretty straight. So who knows, maybe Crosby will learn to knock this crap off. I sure hope so.
TW
I’ve looked at a little of the discussion on los Interwebs of Crosby’s action against McLean. I’m pretty sick and tired of appeals made to “the code.” “The code” is hockey’s biggest lie. There is nothing honorable about hockey’s history of vigilante vengeance.
I also don’t see anything very remarkable about it. The essential violence of the sport always has the potential to explode, and it hardly matters whose behavior manifests this. It’s only notable because it was Crosby. If it had been, say, Eric Godard or Donald Brashear, the reaction would have been “well, yeah, what do you expect?”
Crosby had been looking for a fight for 10 minutes prior to this point, including the altercation with Gregory Campbell. Campbell eventually fought with Maxime Talbot (Talbot was responding to Campbell’s sniping with Crosby – i.e., observing “the code”), and the incident with Crosby and McLean was on the ensuing face-off.
I’m not trying to defend Crosby. It was an incredibly frustrating game following a series of incredibly frustrating games, and he was, as the Pittsburgh announcers put it, sending a message to his teammates. Whatever that message was. Maybe, “you could be next if you don’t start playing better.”
Good luck to the Caps. It’s mighty difficult being a Pens fan lately…
Doc,
So who do you believe? Crosby who says that McLean agreed to fight, or McLean who said he had no idea that Crosby was looking to drop the gloves? Looking at the video I don’t think McLean had any idea that it was coming. Every mutually agreed upon fight that I have seen off a faceoff involved both people dropping gloves and squaring off. This never happened here. In fact, when Crosby started McLean was still attempting to take the faceoff. He was bent over, gloves on and stick in his hands when Crosby jumped on his back.
Maybe Crosby did say that he wanted to fight. Either McLean didn’t hear him or didn’t believe him. In either case, have a little honor. Stand up, drop the gloves and square off. Jumping on someone’s back isn’t fighting. Then again, punching someone in the groin isn’t too respect worthy either.
Doc,
Personally I think I’m agreeing with you when I say that fighting shouldn’t have a place in hockey. It keeps the long time fans watching, but in the end I feel like it kills the flow of the game and doesn’t really fit. The hard checking is enough violence for a guy to make his point.
That said, there is a code with fights and it’s respected for the most part.
This fight was pretty crappy of Sindy, but I feel like what was worse was the brawl with the Thrashers when he flies in attacking Kovalchuk then double teams the guy on the ground and goes for his groin. He looks like a scrappy pup, biting for anything he sees. I don’t care how frustrated he is, you have got to maintain some control especially as captain and poster child of the league. He may not have agreed to either but he’s sure reaping the benefits of it, and I guarantee he likes the attention. He needs to grow up cause I don’t think the league can keep him in diapers much longer.
I work for a sports company which has satellite for all games we have to recap…by luck, I wrote the pens game on saturday so watched every minute of the Panthers’ thrashing.
Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey are usually unlistenable, but to hear Steigie crow that “I looked up and thought I was seeing a replay” when Sid “fought” McLean and comparing it to the hack job Max Talbot did seconds earlier was over and above homerishness and beyond even hockey logic.
No honor whatsoever there, and I’m not even saying Sid would have had any honor had he found a willing participant. “The Code” still exists somewhere in this game, but to invoke it as an excuse for his actions was extra cowardly.
I can honestly see why Bettman would pervert this incident into his reasoning to eliminate fighting. He can’t have one of his golden children going ape$%&* on an opposing player and risk the damage to Crosby’s persona.
Post a Comment