Sid The Kid Skates Again

((HT: sidneycrosbyhockey))

Sources close to the Pittsburgh Penguins are admitting to OSG Sports, in past weeks, Crosby admitted that things weren't really all that "right" when it came to Crosby and his concussion...

Seen here...
((HT: CBCSports/youtube))


Hockey fans are still nowhere close to seeing Crosby play since the Winter Classic. But the HQ did get its first look at him on ice today with the Pens...

Here's Sid after practice...

Crosby Drops The Gloves For Real

And he actually does it and serves a penalty for it instead of one of the 4-gazillion other times he's exhibiting chippy behavior on the ice and they observe the "Crosby Rules."

Last night in Dallas, the Pens got beat by the Stars 5-2, but Crosby felt he had to come to the aid of Kris Letang after his scrap with Brendan Morrow.

Evidence below...
((HT: NHL/FS Stars))


It was Crosby's fifth fight ever...

Sidney Crosby goes yard....

Who says that Hockey players can't play other sports? For that matter, Sidney Crosby, already dubbed the natural in hockey, might just be a natural in baseball too.

Fast forward to earlier this afternoon, when Crosby joined the Pittsburgh Pirates for batting practice. Watch the swing. He's a lefty, and quite honestly, the stroke...it is pretty much textbook.

It didn't take long for the kid, to catch one. Check out the video from the Pittsburgh Penguins and NHL.com:

Sidney Crosby's Busy Night

((HT: CBC/NHL/MMatt9999))

Sid The Kid had a busy night Friday, but that's what the playoffs are for...

A save, a goal, and an assist...

The goal gave the Pens their first point on the board.
We pick up the game with Item Number Two on our shopping list...

Bob Cole got to do the honors...


And that's how a series gets tied at a game a piece...
Simple, really...

Yeah, right...

So Much For That Idea... Pens Now The 4-Seed

A lot of times, if you look at a game on the surface and on the paper everyone talks about, you'll see two teams that have two different ideas running through their heads at any given moment...

One team is going nowhere, except on vacation, after game 82...
The other team is planning how to get prepared for their playoff run...

One team rests three of its highest-paid players on the last home game of the season.
The other team is resting no one and throwing everything they think they have at an inferior opponent...

What's that silly phrase about "why they play the games somewhere else than on paper...?"

That's what happened when the Pittsburgh Penguins played the Hosting Thrashers Saturday evening at Philips Arena...

The Pens were fighting to stay with the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference race for the 2010 postseason- identical records, identical point totals, and identical ideas...

Keep winning...

The Devils kept up their end of the bargain pounding the Islanders, but for some reason the Penguins ran into an Atlanta team that played in front of a sold-out house and had other ideas.

A chippy, scoreless first period led to an equally chippy second period. In the opening twenty minutes, Evander Kane wanted a piece of Sidney Crosby for perceived-shenanigans. In the second period, Matt Cooke got a piece of Kane.

But Kane got Cooke with a straight right...

"If they take exception to who gets hit out there, does that mean you are supposed to start a fight?" Thrashers head coach John Anderson said after the game. "I don't get it. Crosby is so great for this game, but when you're always around the puck, you're going to get hit a little bit. Every time he gets body checked, does that mean somebody is going to get attacked?

"Cooke came at an 18-year-old. What goes around, comes around. That's all I can tell you."

Followed by a draw between Eric Boulton and Eric Godard...
((HT: SportsSouth/NHL/Hockey-fights.com))

They have a history dating back four seasons...

Brian Little scored on Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Thrashers a 1-nothing lead, and it held up on a night where Todd White, Christoph Schubert, Evgeny Artukhin, Pavel Kubina, and Nik Antropov all sat for one reason or another.

"It's disappointing, obviously," Sidney Crosby admitted after the game. "We had a chance to win out. Now we have to make sure we play a good game tomorrow. Our focus is on the playoffs. We've got to move on."

The Penguins now will face the Ottawa Senators in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. But the Sens go into the series, and the rest of the season, without Alexei Kovalev. Kovalev suffered a torn ACL in his left knee in an otherwise-useless game against Tampa Bay Thursday night. Recovery time is normally three to four months.

"The bottom line," Crosby says, "is that we've gotta be better. We have an opportunity a lot of teams don't have."

Wings Won't Back Down From Crosby

Monday night, Pittsburgh lost to the Detroit Red Wings in Hockeytown, but not without making some kind of a statement before leaving the building...

Sidney Crosby either enjoyed cross-checking Henrik Zetterberg as time expired, or really wanted to see if he would go...

Zetterberg, not wanting to get caught in The Kid's shenanigans, wouldn't bite...

Wings goalie Jimmy Howard took exception and joined Todd Bertuzzi in trying to explain how fruitless Crosby's idea was...

Here's a prime example as to why TBH likes Malkin and Ovechkin more than 87...
((HT: Versus/NHL))

Wednesday Morning Stuff

We are going to try and do this as much as we can considering our schedule. Here are a few of the interesting stories from last night and early this morning.

Miller Gets Standing "O" in Pittsburgh...Crosby reaction...not as exciting...

Last night the Pittsburgh Penguins honored both their's and the Buffalo Sabres Olympic Hockey players before the start of their game. The reactions...well they were interesting. Buffalo Goalie Ryan Miller, the Olympic MVP...got a huge standing ovation that lasted for a while. The other players for other countries all got a nice ovation from the Penguin crowd.

When Penguin captain Sidney Crosby popped up. Well...the reaction was a bit mixed.

**Added note. Apparently Crosby's gloves and stick from the Gold Medal game have gone missing (shock). According to reports, he had flung them in the air after his game winning goal and they got lost in all the ensuing chaos. The Hockey Hall of Fame asked for the equipment and...well unless it can be found, they may be waiting a while.

Here is last nights video from the NHL Network and NHL.com:

Air Tran Flight Attendants don't like Swimsuits...

An interesting story from Atlanta late yesterday. Apparently a group of AirTran flight attendants are upset that the airline used a picture of a swimsuit model (Brooklyn Decker) in a plane sponsorship deal with Sports Illustrated to promote their swimsuit issue.

They called the image "Offensive" and "Contrary to the family image that this company tries to promote".

((The photo in question//Courtesy: AJC.com/Airtran))

Okay, while they are certainly within their rights to complain in this entirely too PC world, the sponsorship deal is about to run out. Why wait to complain now? The picture isn't exactly an offensive one. Just sayin'....

Other Tidbits for Today-

**Today is the trade deadline for the NHL. There has already been tons of activity before today, don't expect anything of major significance, there are too many teams still in contention for a playoff berth.

***Spring Training Baseball is in full bloom. There were 2 games yesterday, a fuller slate of games start today.

****The NFL Pro Bowl will go back to Hawaii next season and will be again played one week before the Super Bowl...anyone care?

That's all for now, keep checking in as we will update stories over the course of the day. Enjoy!

Ovechkin Scores Hat Trick As Caps Come Back

((HT: NHL on NBC))

In what is, probably, the pre-Olympic version of the Game of the Year, the Washington Capitals stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime 5-4 in Washington Sunday afternoon.

Sidney Crosby made an early statement scoring two goals and staking a 2-0 lead for the visitors who had to fly from Montreal to Newark and, then, bus to DC. They arrived in the nation's capital at 2:15 in the morning for the noon-time puck drop.

They were forced to eat at a Burger King drive-thru on the drive down at midnight, and were happy that the place was open despite the weather.

Sam Kasan with the Penguins gives the blow-by-blow of the trip down Saturday...

4:43 PM: The Penguins’ game in Montreal ends
5:52 PM: The Penguins arrive at Montreal Airport
6:47 PM: The Penguins get through customs and board the plane
7:30 PM: The Penguins’ plane takes off for Newark, New Jersey
8:52 PM: The Penguins land in Newark
9:24 PM: The Penguins bus departs from Newark for Washington
11:45 PM: The Penguins hit a rest stop for food in Maryland, 81 miles from DC
2:15 AM: The Penguins arrive at the team hotel

This game was "Must See TV" and drew comparisons of Bird vs. Magic as to where the NHL is with their rivalries at this point in time.

Sid The Kid's 22nd Birthday Bash

((HT: Halifax Chronicle-Herald/Jackson))

Sidney Crosby’s smile and the Stanley Cup sparkled under a sun-soaked parade through Cole Harbour Friday afternoon, thrilling thousands of fans who came to see the hometown boy return a champion.

“I got cold shivers,” said Lois Doyle of Lake Echo. “It was awesome. We’re very proud of him.”

Crosby and the most famous trophy in North American sports ((pictured, thanks Christian Laforce/Chronicle-Herald)) rode on a naval fire service truck on Sidney Crosby Day in Halifax Regional Municipality.

Ms. Doyle, husband Dwayne, and sons Ryan, 14, and Christian, 11, arrived near Cole Harbour Place at 10:30 a.m. for the parade that didn’t start for four hours.

They said seeing Crosby and the Cup was the highlight of the summer.

“We’re sure glad that we were able to come out and be here and support,” said Mr. Doyle, who happened to be home between shifts as a crane operator in Fort McMurray, Alta.

“He deserves the support.”

Friday also happened to be Crosby’s 22nd birthday. He became the youngest player to be the captain of a Stanley Cup champion when his Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in seven games this spring.

Jillian Andrews, 17, said the day was a celebration.

“I’m happy. I’m proud,” she said, sitting on a lawn chair by the sidewalk.
“Definitely proud just to live here with someone who’s accomplished so much.”

She held two foil Happy Birthday balloons for the birthday boy.

Signs with birthday wishes dotted the crowd on Forest Hills Parkway and Cole Harbour Road, while others had messages like “We love Sid.”

Businesses lining the parade route also posted congratulations and best wishes for the young superstar.

Here's the live coverage of the day so far, thanks to our friends at the CBC
Brian Dubreuil had the noon live shot from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia

Wings React To Crosby Snub

((HT: MyFoxDetroit))

Henrik Zetterberg says it was disrespectful for Penguins captain Sidney Crosby not to shake hands with all of Detroit's players after Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup.

"I think that's one thing you should do," the Red Wings' Zetterberg said as the players cleaned out their lockers at Joe Louis Arena on Monday. "I don't know why he didn't do it, it's disrespectful."

The biggest snub after Friday night's game was to Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom ((pictured, thanks WJBK-TV)), who waited while Crosby celebrated winning the Cup with his teammates. But he finally left the ice with a few other Detroit players.

"Sidney was probably caught up in the emotions and everything," Lidstrom said, adding that Crosby would learn from the situation.

Here's the reaction from the now-cleaned-out locker of Nik Lidstrom, thanks to our friends at WJBK and MyFoxDetroit...

Crosby: It Wasn't Intentional

((HT: TSN))

A day after being criticized by Detroit Red Wings forward Kris Draper for not shaking hands with Nicklas Lidstrom after Game 7, Sidney Crosby gave his side of the story.

"My intentions were to shake hands," Crosby told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. "That we didn't wasn't me trying to avoid it.

"That's the last thing I'd want to do. By no means was I trying to avoid shaking the other team's hands.

"I think it's important to do that."

Crosby went on to explain to the Post Gazette that after celebrating for "three or four minutes" he joined the handshake line, which at that time only had "seven to 10" Red Wings left, with "five or six" that were leaving the ice.

Crosby also suggested that perhaps Lidstrom did not wait that long before the leaving the ice, recalling that, "I didn't feel like waiting around, either" when the Penguins lost the Stanley Cup to the Red Wings in 2008.

Kris Draper brought the handshake issue to light yesterday, when he called out Crosby to an Associated Press reporter.

"Nick was waiting and waiting, and Crosby didn't come over to shake his hand," Draper said. "That's ridiculous, especially as their captain, and make sure you write that I said that!"

Sidney Crosby Being Sidney Crosby

((HT: NHL/NBC))

A little post-game "jousting" as Eddie Olczyk put it...

Sid The Kid was not happy with how the Red Wings Kirk Maltby chased after him all game long. When the game was over, Crosby decided a little love tap around the ankles would be a good reminder of his displeasure as they get ready for Game 2.

Crosby's head better be on a swivel...

Pens Take Game 7 Against Caps

"Good night, Washington..."
And it wasn't even that close...
A 6-2 final and Sergio Crosby had two goals of his very own...
Bob Cole counts it down for the CBC...
((HT: CBC/NHL))

The Pens now wait for either the Boston Bruins or Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

Sid Acts Like The Kid

And, by that, we mean acting slightly below the age listed on his driver's license and birth certificate...

Remember when the Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby nut-shotted the Atlanta Thrashers Boris Valabik a few weeks back and got no hammer dropped by the league office...?

They now have another opportunity to do a make-good...

Saturday afternoon Crosby, apparently, pearl-harbored the Florida Panthers Brett McLean off a face-off with the Pens down 3-1 in the second period of their game. The Panthers won 6-1.

"I asked him to go, and he said yes. And usually, yes means yes," said Crosby. "I mean, I wouldn't have wasted 20 minutes in the box for that. I guess he didn't take me serious. I don't know, it wasn't worth 20 minutes, though, that's for sure."

"You don't jump a guy while his head's down taking a faceoff," Panthers alternate captain Bryan McCabe said. "That's pretty immature and childish."That's not what the game needs, you know what I mean? But whatever. We beat them where it counted, and that's all that matters. We needed those points."

Decide for yourself...
((HT: FSN Pittsburgh/the youtube))