Sidney Crosby fights with facemask: Where's Don Cherry's outrage?

by nathaneide on Apr 6, 2009 3:41 PM CDT

Let's set the stage. Keith Ballard lays out Evgeni Malkin with a beautiful hip-check. Crosby goes insane and attacks Ballard *gasp* while wearing a facemask! *gasp* and proceeds to lose the fight.

Two issues in my opinion

When is this ridiculous fighting after clean hits going to stop? Seriously. This wussified version of the NHL is a joke. Why can't anyone take a hit anymore. Good lord boys, man up.
Crosby needs to learn to drop the helmet, or else people will call him names, Don Cherry will ridicule you and Wayne Gretzky will yell at you from across a rink.

Oh wait, what? Nobody is bringing these up? They're talking about how brave Sidney is? F**k Sidney Crosby.

"I thought the hit was a little low," said Crosby, who received a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct in addition to the five-minute major he and Ballard were each given for fighting. Malkin said he was not hurt on the hit, which he called "fine."

Ballard said the hit "was clean" and was not surprised Crosby came to Malkin's defense. "They were on the power play, so they didn't have a bunch of tough guys out there," he said. "He's their captain, and he understands that no matter who it is, you have to do something. He's an intense player, competitive. At that point of the game, that was pretty much the right thing to do.

From Puck Daddy

If the Panthers announcers think that's "cleaning someone's clock," then there must be some filthy timepieces in South Florida -- that was a bunch of missed punches between two guys with face shields, before Sidney tackled him. The Hockey Fights smarts give Ballard the edge, but by default.

But the action's irrelevant in the fight, which occurred in the first period of the Panthers' critical 4-2 win over the Penguins; it's the ancillary stuff that matters, and the reaction to this brawl goes one of two ways: Either Crosby's the latest in a series of unfortunate scraps after clean hits that has marred the season, or his dropping the gloves at that moment in a tie game was a laudable act of leadership from a young captain.

Ok Grapes. Where's the outrage? Call him out. Ball's in your court, you prick.

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Comments

Cherry wont say anything

Since Ballard is from Minnesota he won’t say jack. Even though Ballard is about as close to being a Canuck without actually living in a Canadian Territory (Baudette Minnesota).

by darksaga on Apr 6, 2009 4:06 PM CDT reply actions

It was a pretty worthless fight imho. No player stood as the clear winner. If anything Florida wins in the end by getting Sid off the ice for five minutes. I went off on a whole tangent about retaliating on clean hits but this was just lame.

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by FrankD on Apr 6, 2009 4:25 PM CDT reply actions

Seems many Pens fans disagree

It’s too bad.

by nathaneide on Apr 6, 2009 5:21 PM CDT up reply actions

Cherry

He won’t say anything. Are you kidding me? Crosby is a Canadian. Plain and simple. Candian players can do no wrong. Everyone else are piles of crap.

So sayth the King.

http://www.hockeywilderness.com

by BReynolds on Apr 6, 2009 10:37 PM CDT reply actions

1) grapes has called out sid numerous times. he called him out for showboating when he was in juniour and embarrassed him in front of the entire country.
2)grapes calls out canadians every week: crosby, avery, clutterbuck and he craps on ron wilson every week too.
3) ballard, who wears a shield, dropped the gloves first.
4) the fight happened on sunday, a day after coach’s corner, so if grapes is responding you’ll have to wait a few days. so relax.

next time you voice your opinion, make sure you back it up with factual information.

by lake86 on Apr 6, 2009 11:08 PM CDT reply actions

Ok

Not that you’re a complete homer or anything. Ballard dropped the gloves because Crosby attacked him. And we’ll wait and see if Cherry says anything. I’m guessing he won’t.

by nathaneide on Apr 7, 2009 8:02 AM CDT up reply actions

A Cherry Apologizer

Must be lonely to defend the guy, so I won’t beat you up too much here.

1. Calling out Crosby? In juniors? So one time, five years ago, he made mention of something Sid may have done? Wow… really going after him there.

2. You are correct, he does call out the occasional Canadian that he believes does not play the game the way “it should be played.” However, most of his true vitriol is reserved for non-Canadians such as Ovechkin and Malkin. He likely will not say anything about this because the original hit was on Malkin, a Russian.

3. Ballard did indeed drop the gloves first, but Crosby threw the first punch, gloves on, and wearing a shield as well. Don’t make Ballard out to be the bad guy for picking a fight. You going to stand there and let him punch you in the face? Doubtful.

4. Just because Cherry’s little Coach’s Corner aired on Sunday means nothing to me. You think he can’t find a microphone somewhere? He’s on every broadcast on the NHL network games. He could say something if he intended to.

And just for the record, we don;t have to use factual information when expressing an opinion. That is what makes it an opinion, and not fact. Nice try on the attack though. Next time you voice your opinion, make sure you learn the definition of words before throwing them around.

http://www.hockeywilderness.com

by BReynolds on Apr 7, 2009 10:54 AM CDT up reply actions

1. By the time Sid was in Juniors, he was already pretty much a Canadian icon. It’s like the hype Tavares is getting this year – times 100. So yes, Cherry was really going after him there (minus the sarcasm).

2. I’ll a agree with you there, it does seem that Cherry goes after those “Europeans” more often than Canadians. However, he will likely not say anything because the hit made Malkin’s feet go where his head should’ve been. The way that Malkin landed (on his head) looked dangerous; so I can see why Crosby, being the closest Penguin player to Ballard, would let him know that it’s not ok to mess with one of our star players.

3. Oh please. Have you even seen the video? Crosby skated over to Ballard, Ballard then dropped his gloves, which prompted Crosby to do the same – with no punches in between; I don’t see how Crosby standing across from Ballard (hands at his side) counts as “Crosby threw the first punch, gloves on, and wearing a shield as well.” Neither of them had time to take off their helmets, and both have shields. Crosby then took the first punch with his gloves off, Ballard got two punches into Sid’s helmet, and Sid threw him to the ice.

4. I don’t know if there were any of those games on this week, but he could’ve said something. Although, as I explained in number 2 he probably won’t say anything; if anything, might make a comparison of Crosby to Iginla.

by PensFan8725 on Apr 9, 2009 11:20 PM CDT up reply actions