Among some hockey fans, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby has developed quite the reputation. While Penguin fans swear by his consistent play and leadership ability, other fans look at him as a complainer, whiner, and even someone who embellishes to try to get the attention of officials.Think what you want of him, but it's hard to argue that he got pretty banged up Friday night during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, Detroit fans were not on their best behavior in response to his injury.
Check out the video evidence.
I'm going to guess that CBC didn't pipe in that crowd noise.
While it wasn't a topic on the NBC broadcast, it was a topic at the postgame press conference. A reporter identified himself as a "Detroiter," expressed his disappointment, and asked Crosby if he noticed the cheers.
"But that's the last thing that was going through my mind is whether or not people were cheering or booing. There was a lot of things going through my mind, but that wasn't one of them."
Crosby played just one shift the rest of the game. While he said he "jammed his knee", there has been nothing else said about exactly what happened to Crosby.
Detroit fans have always had the reputation of being among the league's best. They failed themselves greatly on Friday, with very Philadelphia-like behavior (no offense to Philadelphia fans, but they'd probably cheer if one of their players chopped Crosby's arm off during a game). It's simply wrong to cheer when a player -- even one you don't like -- is injured. The fact that Detroit fans fell into the anti-Crosby trap is defensible, as he can be quite the polarizing figure because of the attention he gets from the media. However, their performance on Friday was quite shocking and disappointing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
6-13-2009 @ 5:20PM
cjgdnight said...
shameless article to get people to comment... go back to writer's school and get some fresh ideas for real journalism... you wasted 30 seconds of my life with this article, and I can't get them back...... bottom line... who cares about the fans.. it is about the players.
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6-13-2009 @ 6:20PM
Jeff Reynolds said...
It's a shame you have to write someting like this. Did you write about Crosby after the slash to Malby AFTER game one (I doubt it}or Malkin after going after Zettesberg After game 2(I doubt it)and these were players which you are supose to write about , but once again the bias of the media is shown
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6-13-2009 @ 6:27PM
Josh said...
Hey, how about writing about how Crosby didn't shake hands with Detroit after the game last night. I don't care who the hell you are, unless someone on the other team may have just ruined another person's life (Lemieux's hit on Draper, for instance), you shake their damned hands. Crosby needs to learn some respect. You won. Great. But seriously, you won and you won't even let the other team congratulate you.
Why rag on the fans instead of the player? This article is despicable.
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6-14-2009 @ 7:35AM
DAVE said...
josh, this is why your a moron. He did shake hands with the Deadwings , he was just a min late cause he was celebrating at the other end of the ice. The Deadwings rushed the handshake line so they could go cry in thier locker room cause they know a new long term king is at the top of the hockey world. now go cry some more pu$$y
6-15-2009 @ 3:42PM
wiresell2 said...
hey josh, poor poor loser. can sid help if the NFL pulled him away. Anyway, who is the champs
6-13-2009 @ 6:46PM
Craigo said...
Detroit is bitter today.
Josh, take a look at the end of this video and realize that you are a
tool. And then remember that Chelios refused to shake hands with the
Ducks two years ago, and realize that you are an even bigger tool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9I41yMiOPQ
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6-13-2009 @ 7:07PM
noteworthy10 said...
it's not like everyone knew he was injured right at the moment-- people cheer for a solid hit. i agree that this writer is trying to make something out of nothing and should be ashamed. worse yet is whoever approved it to be on the website.
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6-13-2009 @ 7:09PM
boosh120915 said...
The title of that video is cute. I'm not really sure what the definition of any penalty is after this final, but last I checked, kneeing required contact between two knees, not the back of a guy's leg and a knee during a routine check. Also, I don't get what gets you so riled up about this. Crosby has developed a reputation as a sissy and a diver, and has actually injured himself diving in the past, so he's going to get some rough treatment from fans who don't like him. I'm actually impressed that he managed to skate off the ice instead of dropping like he got shot to try to get a call (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW61P5D6Mgo). The Penguins won this one because they wanted it more and played harder for it, so let Sidney Crosby take the credit for Maxime Tablot and Marc-Andre Fleury's work, and follow his lead and forget about it until it actually matters
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6-13-2009 @ 9:45PM
yappy007 said...
maybe the "real" hockey fans see in crosby the same thing i do....he is a spoiled snot nose punk! i wish he would never play the game again. p.s.sid learn how to grow a beard!
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6-14-2009 @ 1:28AM
wstreps said...
Detroit fans act like their from Canada. That's what the Wings coach claims. With all the winning and sour grapes attitude they display it`s easy to see why they could be mistaken for being French.
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6-14-2009 @ 1:39AM
wstreps said...
Detroit fans act like their from Canada. That's what the Wings coach claims. With all the whining and sour grapes attitude they display it`s easy to see why they could be mistaken for being French.
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6-14-2009 @ 4:49AM
rwing said...
This despicable article only goes to show you to what length some so-called "writers" will stoop to for a Headline....."anything", uh Bruce. Anything you can use as fodder for a juicy, and tantalizing headline....reminds me of the song by Don Henley--"Dirty Laundry"...just give me something, something I can use. Vile and disgusting.
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6-14-2009 @ 10:03AM
sg9035 said...
MAKE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT !!!! CROSBY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING BY NOT LEADING THE PENGUINS AT THE CUSTOMERY HAND SHAKE LINE...HE IS THE NHL POSTERBOY,WITH BAD SPORTSMANSHIP AND MANNERS..HE NEEDS TO GET WISE AND FAST..
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6-14-2009 @ 10:15AM
sg9035 said...
The Biggest Question is this....How can a PRO LEAGUE like the NHL have THREE sets of rules ???
The NBA does not...The NFL does not,and so on..
The NHL has a regular season set of rules which is a fairly tight set,and then another set for the playoffs,,and then amazingly a THIRD set for the FINALS,which lets so much go past that it has to be hard for any team of players to be constant in their play..Just imagine if this happened in the Soccer World CUP,!!!!! There would be so much anarchy in the stands resulting in many deaths..Of course I dont want anything like that to actually happen,but the NHL and their $6 million a year man Bettman had better get their act together and get ONE SET OF RULES,and keep them,and enforce them..
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6-14-2009 @ 11:49AM
cjgdnight said...
sg9,
you need to get out more....
the DBs in football get by with murder in the post season. Holding isn't called unless the offensive lineman ties a rope around the linebacker's legs and raises his hand to stop teh clock like rodeo!
nba is no blood no foul in the post season.
NHL is can you still stay upright on your skates? no foul
only one skate: 2 minutes.
body bag or smelling salts requred: 5 minutes.
been this way a long time... separates the men from the boys.
6-14-2009 @ 1:55PM
kfogs1957 said...
By the way, I have not seen anything written about the constant, non -stop booing during the post game awards and festivities. Where is that article. Many times I have seen pro Detroit posts about exuding class, and I certainly think that is in question. Let's call it like it is/was. Really dis-heartening to see some of the crap posted here . Detroit is a class organization, so is Pittsburgh. Draper did not have a dog in this fight, and he showed a lack of class in my opinion. Watch the video folks, if you think Crosby intentionally dissed Lidstrom, I give up.
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6-14-2009 @ 2:03PM
qongquest said...
you would think that if crosby's favorite player growing up was steve yzerman, that he would have shown some class by shaking lidstrom's hand. wings fans know that one of the great things about stevie is that he showed class no matter what the situation. detroit fans acting like philly fans, not. detroit fans know their hockey period. they know that malkin should have been suspended after game 2, intelligent fans know that malkin should have been suspended. would it have mattered, who knows. wings fans watched refs not make calls when they should have. wings fans also watched the NHL move the series up from june 5th to may 30th, playing back to back games, knowing that 4 red wings players were injured. yes the wings were lucky to win the first 2 games, but by then the damage was done,
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6-14-2009 @ 2:22PM
billyp01 said...
any nhl teams fans would cheer a big hit on the opposing teams star player especially in game 7 of the stanley cup..if you want to generalize about philly fans we should just sterotype about bloggers.. the headline should say:
FAT GUY IN BASEMENT OF MOMS HOUSE USES HEADLINE TO GET A RISE OUT OF PEOPLE SO SOMEONE ACTUALLY READS HIS $HIT FOR ONCE
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6-16-2009 @ 1:47PM
Redwings303 said...
Detroit's fans are unsportsmanlike for booing 1 time in the whole series? How about those clowns from Pittsburgh? Yeah, booing every time Marian Hossa touches the puck isn't unsportsmanlike at all. And how about Malkin going after Zetterberg after the game was lost and trying to start a fight. And the funny part is that Malkin couldn't take Z alone! He had to have Satan hold Z while he took swings at him. And now Crosby is upset that people booed when Franzen made a beautiful fair hit? We won't boo at Crosby when he learns to respect our captain. Not even shaking his hand. I don't even care that Lidstrom left the line, a real captain would have found him and congratulated him. People from Pittsburgh disgust me. Learn some class.
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6-14-2009 @ 10:09PM
Joe said...
and a REAL classy captain, would have waited the extra 30 seconds while the winning captain was celebrating his first cup. I never hated wings fans until this year. You have all cried from the beginning to the end of the series even when you were up 2 - 0 and thought you were gonna sweep, still whined about the refs. Think I need to invest some money in the Kleenex tissue stock. I am pretty sure with all the crying you guys are doing, THAT stock will be going way up.