By Damien Cox
The Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/
June 14, 2009
It wasn't perfect. First championships rarely are, or there would be nothing left for an encore.
So Sidney Crosby didn't get to score the winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final on Friday night at The Joe, or make a big pass or a significant defensive play. Instead, he sat nailed to the bench for the final half of the game, his left knee throbbing and useless after an illegal second-period bodycheck from Johan Franzen.
DETROIT - JUNE 12: Sidney Crosby(notes) #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)There were also three separate outbursts of boos after the Pittsburgh Penguins had won the game, with Detroit fans recognizing that Crosby was a tad slow getting over to shake the hands of the dethroned champion Red Wings.
Finally, all in all, Crosby didn't have a major offensive impact in the series, managing one goal and an assist in seven games.
But it would be a terrible mistake to suggest Crosby did not lead the Penguins to this championship. He did, as his reverential teammates would attest.
"He is our team," explained winger Max Talbot after Game 7. "He is the heart and soul of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"Every day he thinks about hockey. Everything he does is about hockey. He respects the game."
Four years after being drafted, Crosby delivered the Cup. Without him, the Penguins would probably not have survived in Pittsburgh, and there would not be a new building – The House That Sid Built – going up across the road from Mellon Arena.
He has lived up to the hype, yet it also seems clear that the essence of Crosby is turning out to be somewhat different than what was anticipated.
He isn't turning out to be primarily a Fancy Dan, or merely a finesse player with his eye on breaking all the records.
Slowly, gradually, a character is emerging a little more like Bryan Trottier than Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky, with perhaps a little Stan Mikita mixed in.
There's a harder edge to Crosby than might have been anticipated – remember the cross-check to the neck of Henrik Zetterberg in Game 1, and then a slash in Game 5 – that leaves him well short of Bobby Clarke territory but nonetheless a player unlikely to win the Lady Byng Trophy any time soon.
He specialized in scoring dirty goals throughout the post-season. Critically, it was the fact that Crosby attracted the attention of Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom in the final that allowed Evgeni Malkin to play against Val Filpulla and Brad Stuart, helpful to the Pittsburgh cause since Stuart insisted on handing the puck to Malkin time after time.
If there's a parallel in another sport, Crosby seems to be on track to be the Derek Jeter of hockey – all about the business of winning.
The NHL, it's fair to say, dodged a bullet in Game 7 when the Penguins won.
DETROIT - JUNE 12: Sidney Crosby(notes) #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins looks on against the Detroit Red Wings during Game Seven of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)Otherwise, the Pittsburghers would have been right to fume about Franzen's crushing hit – Crosby never had the puck – which was the final piece of evidence that once again, the NHL's worst instinct is to throw the rulebook out the window when times are going well.
That's what it did after the Rangers won the Cup in '94, which ushered in the Dead Puck Era.
In this year's final, it was truly unfortunate and worrisome to watch all the regular-season standards be ignored as the Wings and Pens fought for the Cup.
The NHL must continue to be about letting the skill players play, not allowing them to be illegally impeded and even injured in the process. The league once allowed that to happen with Lemieux, Crosby's mentor. Allowing the same to happen to The Kid now would truly defy logic.
Having Crosby injured in that fashion in such a historic game should be a warning to Gary Bettman.
He allowed the game to be dragged into the gutter once. He cannot let it happen again.
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