Here's an excerpt from my latest TribLive.com column:
It’s amazing how the NHL never protects Sidney Crosby, still the face of the league at 38. He clearly got butt-ended at a faceoff by the Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who plays like a rat.
No call.
Even if it was unintentional, it’s still a butt-end.
And it wasn’t unintentional. Pageau goes way down on his stick for draws, exposing the butt end. Then when he flails for the puck, the butt end catches the opposing center and … oops. Sorry.
Between ignoring that, Bryan Rust’s three-game suspension and a lot of calls and non-calls that haven’t favored the Penguins, they’ve been getting the short end of the officiating stick recently. And the butt-end of Pageau’s stick.
To read more, click HERE.
The lack of gratitude on the NHL's part is amazing. Crosby is a great player, exemplary citizen and does everything the league asks.
Who else could be the face of the NHL? Not sourpuss Connor McDavid. Nathan MacKinnon is Crosby's hometown bobo. Alex Ovechkin is a worthy sidekick and approximates a James Bond villain.
Perception-wise. Crosby is still No. 1. At 38.
His thanks for that is being butt-ended without penalty.
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