Crosby to be named Pens captain

[jagr68 0]

Yeah, when I compared Sids players to that of Vinny or Mario, I wasn't really talking about this season.

You think I don't realize how wonderful Malkin, Staal, and Gonchar (offensively) are? Not to mention Fleury as a great goalie.

Vinny didn't have a great team around him, no doubt. Wendall Clark, Darcy Tucker, Stephane Richer, are not all stars, but they are respectable. He had a young Nylander also. So Vinny's first season, he put up some pretty low numbers (28pts in 82 games). I wasn't able to find out how much his average ice time was. As a rookie you could guess maybe he didn't play a lot, but on the other hand, he was hyped a decent amount, and was supposed to be the next Mario so maybe he played first line and had over 20 minutes a game, I don't know. Nothing against Vinny, he's my 2nd favorite player in the NHL, but Sid's first year was truely amazing.

When you look at the Pens team this year. They are much better than last year. His first year there wasn't Staal or Malkin. He had Recchi who still is far past his prime, and LeClair who had a pretty horrible year. Mario played 22 games, but was in so much pain anyway, he couldn't do much. They say the last time he played hockey pain free was 1989. Palffy played half the year and played decent with Sid, but for some reason he wasn't the same Palffy that was tearing it up in LA.

The Pens this past year is a better team. Roberts as leadership and grit and Staal is a a wonderful two way player and we all know Malkin had a great year, but didn't show up much towards the end of the year and it appeared as if he didn't even play a playoff game. Crosby played off and on with Malkin, mostly on the PP and for some games actually played on the same line. They play so much better together, but you gotta spread the talent around. Staal hardly got PP time as it was and very seldom did he EVER play with Sid. So when you look at the Pens team and say how much help Sid had, you can't really throw in Staal's name. You can throw in Malkin part of the time, a washed up Recchi, and come on, Malone and Armstrong? Not exactly Wayne's all star cast in Edmonton.

Maybe you don't take Peter the Great and Hitchcock's word for it that Sid's a diver. Perhaps you saw it yourself. That's all in your perspective. I don't feel he's a diver, most people don't either, but some do. That's fine. What does matter, is that Sid has yet to get a penalty or a fine for diving. So doesn't really matter if the fans think he is the biggest diver or a guy who has never taken a dive, he hasn't been issued a penalty, and that means more than our opinions.

I'm not sure why you feel the Pens have tanked the last few years. It's a huge gamble to think the leauge will have a lockout in a few years (from 2002 or so) and to know that Sid would have been drafted #1 when he was 15 or 16 and there would have been a draft lottery and you were that confident you would get the #1 pick. That's a lot to risk. When you look at the Pens team after Jagr was traded, and after Mario retired, who did they have? They didn't have Lang (not for lon anyway) or Kovalev, they had one guy and he wasn't even consistant. Morozov. You think they tanked? Maybe you thought that team was capable of better, I didn't. When your leading point getter is Dick Tarnstrom, somehow I don't think they were capable of much.

Did they tank the year before Mario? Hah, they probably did. It's also been said New Jersey did the same thing. But as someone said, they never saw so many minor league players get the call up than the Pens team the year before Mario. Did they have a lot of faith in their minor leaguers to win games or did they feel the minor leaguers would cost them a few wins? We'll never know.

Basically, the whole thing is supposed to be about Sid getting the C. I like Vinny a lot, but you can't really compare him to Sid, they are two different players, but with some things in common. Vinny is a natural goal scorer, Sid is a set up man. Both had very little help their first year, and both were hyped to be the future of the game, and now both set records for being the youngest captain. People say they'd rather take Ovechkin, over Sid. I say, depends on your team. If you have a goal scorer you don't want Alex, you want a set up guy. If you don't have a goal scorer, take Sid, he'll score and make guys around him better. Nothing against Alex, he can pass, but not as well as Sid. Sid can score, but not as well as Alex.

[Guest ZDH]

Yeah, when I compared Sids players to that of Vinny or Mario, I wasn't really talking about this season.

You think I don't realize how wonderful Malkin, Staal, and Gonchar (offensively) are? Not to mention Fleury as a great goalie.

Vinny didn't have a great team around him, no doubt. Wendall Clark, Darcy Tucker, Stephane Richer, are not all stars, but they are respectable. He had a young Nylander also. So Vinny's first season, he put up some pretty low numbers (28pts in 82 games). I wasn't able to find out how much his average ice time was. As a rookie you could guess maybe he didn't play a lot, but on the other hand, he was hyped a decent amount, and was supposed to be the next Mario so maybe he played first line and had over 20 minutes a game, I don't know. Nothing against Vinny, he's my 2nd favorite player in the NHL, but Sid's first year was truely amazing.

When you look at the Pens team this year. They are much better than last year. His first year there wasn't Staal or Malkin. He had Recchi who still is far past his prime, and LeClair who had a pretty horrible year. Mario played 22 games, but was in so much pain anyway, he couldn't do much. They say the last time he played hockey pain free was 1989. Palffy played half the year and played decent with Sid, but for some reason he wasn't the same Palffy that was tearing it up in LA.

The Pens this past year is a better team. Roberts as leadership and grit and Staal is a a wonderful two way player and we all know Malkin had a great year, but didn't show up much towards the end of the year and it appeared as if he didn't even play a playoff game. Crosby played off and on with Malkin, mostly on the PP and for some games actually played on the same line. They play so much better together, but you gotta spread the talent around. Staal hardly got PP time as it was and very seldom did he EVER play with Sid. So when you look at the Pens team and say how much help Sid had, you can't really throw in Staal's name. You can throw in Malkin part of the time, a washed up Recchi, and come on, Malone and Armstrong? Not exactly Wayne's all star cast in Edmonton.

Maybe you don't take Peter the Great and Hitchcock's word for it that Sid's a diver. Perhaps you saw it yourself. That's all in your perspective. I don't feel he's a diver, most people don't either, but some do. That's fine. What does matter, is that Sid has yet to get a penalty or a fine for diving. So doesn't really matter if the fans think he is the biggest diver or a guy who has never taken a dive, he hasn't been issued a penalty, and that means more than our opinions.

I'm not sure why you feel the Pens have tanked the last few years. It's a huge gamble to think the leauge will have a lockout in a few years (from 2002 or so) and to know that Sid would have been drafted #1 when he was 15 or 16 and there would have been a draft lottery and you were that confident you would get the #1 pick. That's a lot to risk. When you look at the Pens team after Jagr was traded, and after Mario retired, who did they have? They didn't have Lang (not for lon anyway) or Kovalev, they had one guy and he wasn't even consistant. Morozov. You think they tanked? Maybe you thought that team was capable of better, I didn't. When your leading point getter is Dick Tarnstrom, somehow I don't think they were capable of much.

Did they tank the year before Mario? Hah, they probably did. It's also been said New Jersey did the same thing. But as someone said, they never saw so many minor league players get the call up than the Pens team the year before Mario. Did they have a lot of faith in their minor leaguers to win games or did they feel the minor leaguers would cost them a few wins? We'll never know.

Basically, the whole thing is supposed to be about Sid getting the C. I like Vinny a lot, but you can't really compare him to Sid, they are two different players, but with some things in common. Vinny is a natural goal scorer, Sid is a set up man. Both had very little help their first year, and both were hyped to be the future of the game, and now both set records for being the youngest captain. People say they'd rather take Ovechkin, over Sid. I say, depends on your team. If you have a goal scorer you don't want Alex, you want a set up guy. If you don't have a goal scorer, take Sid, he'll score and make guys around him better. Nothing against Alex, he can pass, but not as well as Sid. Sid can score, but not as well as Alex.

While I disagree with many of your opinions here, I do respect that you actually backed up what you said. So thank you for that. I wish more posters would do that instead of giving me useless biased rhetorical crap like the idiot I have been arguing with here.

Crosby was known here in Canada for years ever since he was a 10 year old phenom. I saw the Pens basically trade every decent player they had in guys like Jagr, Kovalev, Straka, Lang, etc so they could sink further in the standings than they already were. It seemed like Pitt and the Caps were in a tanking contest. Now is this fact? No. Is it my opinion? Yes. All I know is that the Pens got some pretty high draft picks in consecutive years in guys like Whitney, Fleury, Crosby and Malkin. I don't think this is a coincidence.

YOu are right. Vinny and Sid are very different players but are both Canadian! Go TEAM CANADA GO! Both are special franchise players. WHile I am not a fan of Sid, I do know he is a special player.

[jagr68 0]

Yeah, I totally agree with someone saying Sid is a lot like Zetterberg.

I think Sid is one of the toughest players in the league, no doubt. Not a fighter, but man does he take a beating every game. And he is seldom knocked down. They showed that clip in the Ottawa playoff round where he took hits from 3 different guys, on the same shift, knocking one of them down, but he wouldn't do down.

He has incredible balance and very strong shoulders. They said his legs are like tree trunks. He works out a lot on his upper body, but most of his conditioning is his lower body. He does a lot of squats so that's where his leg power comes from. He didn't do it alone though, he's had a personal trainer since 13.

Zetterberg is the same way, that guy gets hit and hit and keeps on coming. I think Zetterberg and Crosby are probably the two toughest players in the league. Both play through injury. You can't always go by that though, many players play injured, but since those two are superstars you happen to hear about it more often.

Far as Sid being a whiner. I knew that would stick with him. You are right, his first year, he did whine. Seemed like he whined almost every game. But so what. He was 18, and he has matured. People said the same thing about Wayne, Mario, and Yzerman. Today, nodoby calls Yzerman a whiner and realistically, they stopped calling him that pretty quick into his career. Nodoby really calls Mario a whiner. Although they called him a whiner when he complained about the clutching and grabbing, yet when Joe Thornton complained about it the year before the lockout, nobody said anything bad about him. Mario is a whiner, but here is big tough Joe complaining about the same thing Mario complained about 10 years sooner when he said scoring will decrease because of that. He sure called that. And Wayne, hah, people still call him a whiner. I always thought he was, but I'm not going to lie, I am bias because I don't like him. So me calling Wayne a whiner doesn't really mean much.

Sid learned this year the less he complains the more calls go his way. His first year he whined a lot and didn't get many calls. He shut his mouth this year, played his game, and more calls went his way.

By the way. Anybody who gets CBC, they are going to have Vinny and Sid on before the game, probably to talk about Vinny's Rocket Richard and Sid's Art Ross.