Crosby's reputation takes another big hit

Yesterday, with his team down 4-1 in the midst of a brutal stretch of losing, Sidney Crosby lost it. After watching teammate Max Talbot tango with Panthers forward Gregory Campbell, Crosby decided that he wanted to take a try.

While Brett McLean was bent over ready to take a faceoff, Crosby grabbed him by the scruff of his sweater, pulled him up, and began to roughhouse him. Crosby dragged McLean around like a rag doll as the two combatants traded punches, and eventually, the "fight" stagnated in along the side boards.

Crosby did his time (19 minutes), and skated back to his bench following the conclusion of his ten minute misconduct. That could have been the end of it, but if it's Crosby, you know something more is going to follow.

Posters on multiple internet hockey forums, writers for various media outlets, and fans of both the Penguins and Panthers have had more than a mouthful to say about the incident.

Most people seem to think that Crosby's actions were disgusting. Some have called for him to be suspended, and other inbreds have demanded he be killed or dismissed from the NHL.

Crosby's intentions by taking on McLean are fairly clear; he wanted to fire up his team, and show that at least somebody still cared about sticking up for himself and exhibiting emotion. Crosby made no attempt to injure McLean, and he didn't even throw a punch until McLean had time to react and get himself into a less vulnerable position.

All that 87 was trying to do was fire up his team.

This comes two weeks after an ugly sequence of events in Atlanta where Crosby threw a few punches into the rear end of Thrashers' defenseman Boris Valabik. While some have speculated that Crosby was actually punching the "fruit basket" of the towering blueliner, he was clearly not. Valabik stated that he didn't even feel Crosby's jabs, and if he had been punched in that area, he certainly would have felt it. It doesn't justify what Sidney did, but it does lead to the point that he is held to a double-standard.

Since this is Crosby we're talking about, all logic is swept under the rug, and he is the anti-Christ. He can do absolutely no right, and he is a "p-s-y".

He plays the game with fire, and sometimes, he has trouble controlling himself, as do most 21 year old kids. The idea that Crosby is a dirty player, or that he doesn't handle himself with class, is ridiculous.

Sid will be Sid, whether fans of opposing teams like it or not.

It's just ironic that Crosby can garner such a negative reputation for a few isolated instances of less than mature behavior, while players across the league do so much worse on a weekly basis, but never have anything done to their reputation and the way they are seen.

Last night, Jason Spezza threw a vicious spear into the gut of a Toronto Maple Leaf, but there were no 30 page message board threads about that, nor was there a reaction when Alex Ovechkin drilled Dustin Brown from behind in Los Angeles earlier in the season.

It's Crosby, and there will be a double-standard.

We'll just have to accept that, for now.