And if you follow the NHL you know that's just the tip of the
Crosby-hating iceberg, since the ways to make fun of the Penguins'
captain are as expansive and unceasing as the coverage of the man
himself. Think of the fans who come to games with ""No Diving""
signs directed at Crosby or the Canadian who wrote on the forum for
ihatecrosby.com, ""Being Canadian of course I wanted to win Gold.
But having Crosby scoring after doing nothing for three games
killed me ... It was next to losing.""
As enjoyable as making fun of Sidney Crosby is, however, it's fair
to ask why hockey fans do it.
Sure, there are the stand-by reasons: he's a whiner, he's soft,
he's the only person ESPN shows if they ever do hockey highlights,
he's the golden boy, the wunderkind, the prodigy — hell, maybe he's
the (next) Great One. But many of these criticisms are more
indictments of the state of hockey in this country than ways to
bash the player himself. Still, many hockey fans (myself included)
don't like him.
Maybe Crosby is soft, but I'm going to need a bit more convincing
that he's the anti-christ if the only reason you give me is that he
takes dives. Crosby might not be the biggest badass in the game,
but let's face it — he's a damn good player who works for his goals
and has shown he can lead his team to a Stanley Cup.
The reasons to cheer for Crosby only become clearer when you
compare him to hockey's other mega-star, Alex Ovechkin. Crosby
might be soft, but Ovechkin is the more harmful antithesis of that:
the bad-boy player whose popularity lets him get away with being a
dirty player.
Now I'm not going to switch into Don Cherry mode and tell you
Ovechkin's celebrations are out of line and not in keeping with the
sport's unwritten code, because I'm not some old dude in a
ridiculous suit who thinks the game should still be played on ponds
and that goalies are pussies if they wear a mask. But, like I said
in this column a few months ago, Ovechkin's style of play has gone
from exciting and intimidating to downright reckless this
season.
Ovechkin has taken opponents out on illegal knee-on-knee hits and
even ended Brian Campbell's regular season with a check into the
boards from behind. Sure, he can score some downright beautiful
goals from time to time and there's no player in the NHL who is
more entertaining to watch than Ovechkin.
But when you get down to it, Alex Ovechkin has become a dirty
player, and while people laud his brash style of play, Crosby is
thrown under the bus for being too soft. You would think, then,
that it would be Ovechkin who would draw the ire of hockey fans
everywhere – after all, he can be just as over-hyped as Crosby in
what passes for NHL coverage here.
So why do we hate Sidney Crosby so much while we give Ovechkin a
blank check to end seasons and injure players?
If we get past the machismo behind calling a player soft we might
see that Crosby is an extremely good player who works hard for
every goal and has delivered in crucial ways his rivals have not.
The media coverage of him is a little ridiculous, but that's not
necessarily his fault – when you get down to it, he's perhaps the
best player in hockey today, and has the hardware to prove it, with
a Cup and a gold medal.
So scale down the Crosby hatred – sure, keep putting a baby's head
on his body and selling #87 diapers and pacifiers, but slow down
when you call him a punk or the worst thing to happen to hockey
since the lockout. When you get down to it, there aren't a whole
lot of good reasons to hate Sidney Crosby.
What exactly makes Crosby so hatable? E-mail Nico at
savidgewilki@wisc.edu.
