Just to clarify. I’m not saying that Sid isn’t a hard worker. What I’m saying is that he makes the game look easy, and that to him the game comes easily. It wasn’t to impugn his effort or the time it took him to develop the skills.
And with that I end my role in this hijack. 
ETA: Guin, who roots for Avery? That’s even worse than rooting for friggin’ Pronger.
This sentence might be confusingly misunderstood to indicate that the Lightning have one more Stanley Cup win than Sidney Crosby (or the Penguins) during their existence. Of course, neither is accurate.
Well, if that’s your method for selecting who to root against, it seems like you ought to root for the Buffalo Sabres, right?
It’s a deal, my son and I just agreed on the Sabres.
The Sabres?
OK, that’s cool.
They’re not my team - I’m from Pittsburgh and a Penguins fan, but your choice has a definite logic to it. I did become a big fan of Miller’s during the Olympics.
My friend in high school was from outside Buffalo, and was a Sabres fan, and he had a copy of a 70s support song for the Sabres that was undeniably catchy. If I could, I’d pass it along to you. “You know our Don Luce; he’s gonna skate circles around you! Me and the Buffalo Sabres yeah, yeah, yeah!”
I’ve never been able to root for a team without having a more organic sort of connection to the team. Seems odd to be able to just choose one like that, but I certainly understand the idea of getting into something like that to share with your son. Good luck to you.
Oh, and teach your son now to say “Fluck the Fyers!”
Habs
Good choice. I don’t think it’s humanly possible to hate Ryan Miller.
Thank you for not picking the Red Wings. The Sabres are a good choice but let me tell you now, Brett Hulls’ goal was good.
Prepare for disappointment. Good that you and your son picked a team, but prepare for disappointment.
He is a diver and a whiner. He’s also spectacularly talented, but he’s still a diver and a whiner.
It’s a stigma that will rightfully follow him for his entire career. Deal with it.
And then:
mmm
I will agree with you that complaining about the hats was incredibly petty. However, I stand by my admiration of Sidney Crosby. You cannot deny his skills, or his hardwork or dedication.
I’m not saying you have to like the guy, I’m just sticking up for my team.
And yeah, there are people who apparently are fans of Sean Avery. I guess they’re into sloppy seconds.
Bullshit! No way that was a continuous possession! 
The Sabres are a natch if only for Tim Horton. But that then comes full circle back to Sid.
No one’s denying his skill except for maybe those who just blindly hate him, but they’re more than matched by those who blindly defend him and refuse to see his flaws.
His talent is what makes his behavior all the more deplorable, because he’s got the ability to overcome it; but he uses cheap tactics to take advantage of the league’s coddling of superstars.
You can admire him all you like, he’s certainly admirable in many senses… but you can’t call BS on those who accuse him of diving and whining.
You’ve basically produced one clip of him actually being tripped, one clip regarding the hats business, and then two video clips that look like diving (the face off thing is so weird that I’m not sure what to make of it). I’m pretty confident that I could find two clips of just about any player that look like he’s taking a dive, or squeezing some guy’s stick under his arm to draw a hooking call, or so on and so forth.
Crosby is hardly a coddled superstar.
I’d rate Crosby’s whinning about on par with Ovechkin being a dirty player.
Neither are fair assessments, both have some basis in fact based on isolated and mostly early career events.
The skills of both are probably overstated by their fans and understated by fans of their opponents.
I just grabbed the first 4 videos I found because a few are all that is necessary to dispute the statement that he is not a diver. Technically, only one is needed, but there are more out there if you require additional evidence. In fact, there are entire montages dedicated to his antics.
You either don’t watch many Penguins games or are a Penguins fan.
The NHL coddles all of its superstars. Its seen regularly in Colin Campbell’s “Wheel of Justice” that allows guys like Alexander Ovechkin and Jeff Carter to get no to minimal penalties for the exact same actions that get non-superstars harshly suspended and fined.
And in game, they get the benefit of the doubt far more often than not… just off the top of my head there was the recent slew-foot by Crosby on Ryan Callahan that inexplicably ended up being an interference call on Callahan.
Uh huh. Hey, have your hate-on for Crosby. I don’t care. But off the top of my head, in addition to thinking of a lot of other instances in which most players dive or try to draw penalties like I said, I can think of many times that Crosby is hooked, held, interfered with or roughed that aren’t called. Just look at the Winter Classic, for instance, when he was blind-sided while skating in the neutral zone without the puck. No call there.
But as I said, it’s no skin off my nose what you think of Crosby. I am a Pens fan, and I’m quite content with his play and his ringing up the scoreboard. I’d be surprised if it didn’t make fans of other teams pissy.