#19forPresident!

They can have all of the spotlight they can handle as long as the hardware comes with us.

No offense, but this reads like a bad assignment for an intro to college writing course.

Well I heard it, as I was there helping, and I have quite a bit of class tyvm. The chant started because Crosby was busy participating in extracurricular activities all game and then spending time between every whistle complaining to the zebras. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, he's a free man and can do as he pleases, but that's not very captain-esque and in our building it shouldn't surprise anybody that he heard about it. Chanting Crosby sucks was simply more efficient than trying to get 20k drunk people to chant Crosby is a bad captain. Good kid, great player, but as a captain he sucks, and I don't really regret telling him that.

His stick work alone is one of a kind, couple that with his vision on the ice and his ability to use his body even though it isn't extraordinarily large, and the rest is history. As far as two way forwards go, I think both him and Z are one of a kind, just different kinds. I think of Z and I remember the 5 on 3 PK from last years finals, and his ability to make the wrap around somehow a viable scoring chance. I think of Pasha and see goalie's jock straps hanging from the crossbar, and the back-checking of a rabid wolverine, a rabid wolverine that has somehow honed the skill of using a hockey stick.

Yes. Working evenings sucks. Miss the sunsets in the summer, hockey games throughout the season. It's like a drop dead gorgeous woman, who also happens to be an anesthesiologist, telling you that she is going to put you to sleep and then have maniacal sex with you. You know something awesome is going on but you aren't able to experience it.

I'm with you to an extent. This stuff happens every year, usually started by the media so they have something to talk about between games, but then it gets picked up by obsessed or bored fans that drive it down the throats of anybody unfortunate enough to share the same personal space or message board. It is what it is, I think most of us do a good job of ignoring it and trying to contribute to something at least semi productive here. On an officiating note, other than the missed too many men call, the majority of the officiating is what you would expect from the finals, some crap calls here and there, but usually not busch league, certainly not worthy of 'conspiracy' theories w/o any concrete evidence. That's the game, and that's the breaks, you don't always get the right call or the good bounce, but you take what you get for better or worse and deal with it because the other team has to as well. Having said that, I think that's a damn good squad we're facing from Pittsburgh, and both teams deserve recognition for being clearly deserving of their opportunity to win it all. Now lets go get game 5 and then we can worry about 6!

I've got tickets for game 5, so I'm taking this theory to the house!

Hmmmmm.......Whining about posts that have whining in them? Well I guess that is what 95% of internet forum content is, so game on.

Yeah, I like Bylsma too, under his watch for a whole season and beyond that team could get the kind of bench leadership that is crucial to success. Therrien had Crosby-itis, he had the knowledge and skill to coach that team very well but he spent too much time worrying about things that were already done with and not focusing on ensuring positive outcomes for those that hadn't happened yet. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Yep, everybody gets their good and bad breaks in sports. Sometimes bats shatter in baseball. Sometimes refs blow quick/slow whistles, and boards bounce in hockey. Sometimes snow blasts your team moving up the field and stops dead when the opposition takes possesion. Sometimes tires blow out in NASCAR. And the BCS is the work of voodoo death computers. Every sport has it's uncontrollable variables, people just gotta learn to accept them instead of using them as cop outs for the outcome.

Bummer, it's always sad to see a local team pick up and move out, regardless if they're your team's farm or not. Example, I'm an Indians fan but I still go to Mud Hens games all the time and watch them, just fun to get out to a game, cool to watch those guys as they break into the big leagues too, and I'd hate to see them leave. I was sad to see the Storm fold in Toledo a couple years back, granted they were just a little ECHL hack and slash squad, but they were still a Wings affiliate and can be credited with making me a Wings fan after following them as a little kid. Fond memories of that old dump known as the Toledo Sports Areana, wonder if anybody else remembers when they had the female goalie, good times.

I was there too.....that was rough. It was one of the best hockey games ever played and I got to see it.....But that still doesn't deaden the fact that I was less than 35 seconds from seeing the cup hoisted by my lifelong favorite team on home ice. Which is why I have tickets to game 5 this year too! Here's to hoping I end up getting a refund on those because the game isn't necessary. :beerbuddy:

Respect. :hockeysmile:

Let him play. Last thing I want to hear is the cry of "well we didn't have Malkin." Let him play, I want to beat their best to show who is the best.

:champs: :champs:

:stanley: :stanley: :stanley: :stanley: :stanley:

At this point yes, Pittsburgh's proven their ability, but when Crosby got drafted and Bettman decided to make him the posterboy immediately, no they hadn't, which was the point I was making.

I use choice words sparingly, but this is one of those times. Helm is one bad motherf***er. Stick him in any spot.....any spot....and he will do the job, hard, fast, and right.

Lidstrom I can say no definitely, the guy could run a school of etiquette. Yzerman perhaps here and there early in his career, but the game was very different then and I was just a kid in the 80's so my memory may not be spot on. The problem is that you're exactly right, Crosby isn't mature enough for the monster commitment and responsibility Bettman has laid on his shoulders. And the point should also be made that neither Lids nor Stevie were smashed with this much responsibility in the dawn of their careers, certainly much was expected of them, but they weren't to be found anywhere the NHL logo could be spotted like Crosby is. Certainly they were recognized as world class talents but they really only became league sellers after they showed everyone Detroit could win back in the mid to late 90's. Crosby on the other hand got the privilege of being league salesman in the infancy of his career on a team that's proven nothing, so if the pressure he feels seems a bit much at times I couldn't blame him for a nanosecond.

I'm sorry, but a poor sport is not a good ambassador of the game. This guy would be respected so much more if he would just think these things instead of saying them.

The only thing certain in life is that it will eventually end, the rest is just trivial. Having said that, lets get this party started and really give people something to talk about. Should be a great series.

You're right, they're not, but the delusion gives both the media and the Pens fans a bone to chew on.