By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
John Heller/Post-Gazette
Sidney Crosby and Brooks Orpik make their way through Pittsburgh International Aiport Monday.
Leave it to a guy who grew up in Cleveland and now draws a paycheck in Pittsburgh to put a proper spin on divided sports loyalties, on what it was like to be an American watching Sidney Crosby deliver Canada an Olympic hockey gold medal at the expense of the United States, and what it was like to be a Penguins player with teammates on opposite sides of Sunday's championship game in Vancouver.
"If I can handpick one guy to rip our hearts out, I guess it would be Sid," forward Mike Rupp growled Monday after the Penguins practiced at Mellon Arena.
"You know what I mean? I wouldn't really want anybody else to do it."
Crosby, usually the darling of this city, morphed into the dearest of all in Canada when he scored 7:40 into overtime to clinch the gold medal in a riveting, 3-2 game that closed out a captivating hockey tournament within the Winter Games.
The Penguins were still talking about it Monday, particularly the winning goal scored by Crosby, who in June became the youngest captain in the National Hockey League to hoist the Stanley Cup.
"It's like the hockey gods were watching the game, watching Sid, with the perfect finish for Team Canada and for Sid," forward Max Talbot, a Canadian, said. "He's the face of hockey in Canada. Everybody loves him there. For him to score the game-winner, it just seems perfect.
"It's a legendary goal."
Among Penguins players in addition to Crosby, defenseman Brooks Orpik won a silver medal playing for the U.S., Marc-Andre Fleury won a gold as Canada's third-string goaltender, and center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Sergei Gonchar played for Russia, a team considered a strong contender before it got bumped by Canada in the quarterfinals.
All five Penguins Olympians are expected to play tonight at home against the Buffalo Sabres after Crosby, Fleury and Orpik flew Monday from Vancouver to Pittsburgh.
NHL play resumes this week after a two-week break for the Olympics. In the race for the eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins are tied for third with the Ottawa Senators with 76 points apiece, one point ahead of fifth-place Buffalo and one point behind second-place New Jersey Devils.
The gold-medal game drew an average of 27.6 million viewers in the United States, according to NBC, making it the most-watched hockey game since the U.S. beat Finland for the gold medal in 1980, the "Miracle on Ice" Olympics.
Overall, 190 million Americans watched the Winter Games from Vancouver, second to the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.
The U.S. won 37 medals, its most at a Winter Games, and the gold-medal hockey game Sunday -- the final event of the 16-day extravaganza -- pulled in 10.5 million more viewers than those who watched the same matchup in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
In terms of local markets, Pittsburgh was second to Buffalo, N.Y., in viewership of the hockey final. U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller plays for the Sabres.
Although Miller, the MVP of the Olympic hockey tournament, will be at Mellon Arena with the Sabres tonight, he is expected to get a rest in favor of backup goaltender Patrick Lalime.
The heightened interest in Olympic hockey comes as the NHL is wavering on whether to continue to lend its players to the world event. The next Winter Games are in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
League officials have said it doesn't necessarily make good business sense to participate, and Penguins general manager Ray Shero trotted out one of the standard management arguments that when the Games are several time zones away, it's difficult for fans to watch games live.
Yet Shero, who is on the USA Hockey advisory committee, got as caught up in the Olympics as anyone.
"I think that's going to iron itself out in collective bargaining with the [International Olympic Committee] and the NHL," Shero said, "but, as a fan, I really enjoyed watching the Games and being there."
He also believes Crosby's performance "is good for the Penguins."
Malkin reiterated his stance that he plans to represent Russia in 2014 regardless of what the NHL dictates, much as Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin, of Russia, has said repeatedly.
"Why not? It's my national team. If I'm ready, I think I'll go in 2014 in Sochi," Malkin said.
Gonchar watched the way Canada, with the enormous expectations of producing a gold medal on home ice, struggled some early in the Vancouver tournament. He can only imagine what it will be like in Sochi.
"Believe me, there's going to be enough pressure," he said. "When you're playing at home, playing in front of your own crowd, expectations are very high."
Already, a lot of heat is on the coaches and executives of the Russian hockey team, who very well could be replaced.
Gonchar said he had no strong rooting interest in the gold-medal game, although, "I can say I'm glad Canada [won] because then I can say we lost to the champions."
He also found something poetic about Crosby's winning goal.
"I was happy that Sid scored that goal since the guy was born for it," Gonchar said.
Since he was a teenager, Crosby has been anointed as the world's next great hockey player, and with the gold medal on top of a Stanley Cup, the 22-year-old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, just might have supplanted Wayne Gretzky, hockey's top record-holder, as the most popular, beloved man in Canada.
"I think Sid really cemented himself in Canadian hockey history," said linemate Bill Guerin, who has played in three Olympics for the Americans but gave way to a younger set this time. "Nobody is ever going to forget that goal that he scored."
Including Crosby.
"He's going to be coming in on a high," Guerin said. "If he's not feeling great about himself now, something's wrong."
For more on the Penguins, read the Pens Plus blog with Dave Molinari and She lly Anderson at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Shelly Anderson: shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.
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