Sidney Crosby and the NHL’s biggest headache

By Cathy Gulli - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 4:22 PM - 6 Comments

After months of intense speculation about whether or not Sidney Crosby will return to play when the NHL season resumes on Oct. 6, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain broke his silence on Wedensday—but failed to quell the questions about how much longer this concussion will haunt him.

In a meeting space that smelled like a hockey locker room inside the Consol Energy Center, Crosby, his two concussion specialists, and Penguins GM Ray Shero faced more than 60 reporters and a dozen cameras to emphasize yet again that there is no fixed date for when the superstar will get back in the game. Continue…

Newsmaker of the Year: Sidney Crosby

By Charlie Gillis and Ken MacQueen - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 42 Comments

Newsmaker of the year - Sidney Crosby | Matt Slocum/AP

René Fasel is a small, brusque man whose greatest virtue—candour—is also his greatest flaw. The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation has more than once gotten himself into trouble by blurting out unwelcome thoughts on, say, fighting in hockey, or the parsimony of National Hockey League owners. But seldom has Fasel risked his own well-being so recklessly as he did after the second period of the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the United States at the Vancouver Olympics, when, with Canada leading 2-1, he turned to the man sitting next him.

“All we need now,” said Fasel gleefully, “is another American goal.” The man was John Furlong, and he was not so much offended as thunderstruck. As the Games’ chief organizer, Furlong knew better than anyone the gravity of the moment for the 22 million Canadians tuned in to the game. His country stood on the cusp of the greatest moment in its sporting history, he recalls in a forthcoming book Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country—a gold medal win, on home soil, in the sport it gave the world. Yet here was Fasel, a sports bureaucrat from Switzerland, thinking about—what?—the impact of overtime on international television ratings?

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The Habs: Giant-Killers

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM - 1 Comment

Canada's Olympians: Sidney Crosby, Ice hockey

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 37 Comments

He’s still capable of wonder—though wonder itself has been part of the sales package so long it sounds hokey to say. It was there in Sidney Crosby’s voice a couple of weeks ago, after he woke in Vancouver to the sight of crews putting the last touches on the athletes’ village. “Exciting,” “special” and “honour” cropped up in the ration of bromides he served up that morning to the microphones.

And there was a genuine flutter in his references to the athletes’ village, where any Olympic participant will tell you the good times truly roll. It turns out even a $9-million-a-year superstar and self-described “homebody” can get giddy about something like that.

Crosby is that rare athlete whose actual personality is more appealing than he would have you believe. At 22, he is inarguably Canada’s best hockey player, winner of a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, and a world junior championship. The ebullience that might induce has been pressed down beneath a lid of cultivated blandness. But one need only watch the home video footage of him currently airing in Tim Hortons’ commercials to catch a ray of the preteen enthusiasm that came before the script. And any fan who watches Crosby can see the part of him that is spontaneous, real and unabashedly animated by the tribal aspects of the game. He revels in the success of teammates. He takes offence on their behalf.

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There's no faking a playoff beard

By Andrew Potter - Monday, June 8, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 7 Comments

We are now well into the last round of the NHL playoffs, with the Pittsburgh Penguins once again up against the Detroit Red Wings. Sometime this week, the Stanley Cup will be held aloft and carried triumphantly around the rink by an ecstatic group of players who haven’t shaved in months, and who now look like nothing more threatening than refugees from a Sam Roberts concert.

Most fans are familiar with the sporting world’s more amusing superstitious types, like the baseball player Wade Boggs, who famously ate chicken before every game, or the hockey goaltender Patrick Roy, who liked to talk to his goalposts. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby gave hockey purists conniptions after his team beat Carolina for the Prince of Wales trophy to make it into the final round: he picked up the trophy and carried it around last week, when even touching the thing is considered bad luck.

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VIDEO: Top 10 cheap shots during the 2009 NHL Playoffs

By Tom Henheffer - Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 2:52 PM - 5 Comments

10. Chris Kunitz rockets into Kimmo Timonen — Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia, Game 3 (0:55)

9. Scott Walker decks Aaron Ward — Carolina v. Boston, Game 5 (0:06 and 1:11)

8. Scott Hartnell trips up Kris Letang — Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia, Game 1 (6:14)

7. Matt Cooke drops Erik Cole — Carolina v. Pittsburgh, Game 1 (0:06, 0:48)

6. Sean Avery says hello to Simeon Varlamov — New York v. Washington, Game 2 (0:21, 1:12)

5. Alex Ovechkin knees Sergei Gonchar — Washington v. Pittsburgh, Game 3 (0:14 and 0:45)

4. Mike Cammalleri sucker punches Martin Havlat — Calgary v. Chicago, Game 1 (0:04)

3. Chris Kunitz crosschecks Simeon Varlamov’s neck — Pittsburgh v. Washington, Game 2 (0:11)

2. Ryan Parent makes Jordal Staal land on his face — Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia, Game 1 (9:28)

1. Daniel Carcillo gives Max Talbot a headache — Philadelphia v. Pittsburgh, Game 1 (0:01)

Hockey: are the Pens doomed in '08-09?

By Charlie Gillis - Monday, August 18, 2008 at 2:18 PM - 0 Comments

Latest dispatch from Pittsburgh, where last year’s run to the Stanley Cup final is fading into memory: defenceman Ryan Whitney is gone for up to five months after surgery to correct a bone fault in his foot.

This guy is a key to the Pens’ season, working the point on the power play along with Sergei Gonchar and keeping pace with the Pens’ prodigious young forwards. But pundits worried this promising team might fall apart in the off-season, and so far the pessimists have been right. Gone are Ryan Malone, Marian Hossa, Georges Laraque, Gary Roberts, Jarkko Ruutu to trades and free agency. And now Whitney for 15-20 games. Sure, they picked up Miro Satan and Matt Cooke, and of course the Crosby/Malkin one-two punch should never be underestimated. But I’m starting to think the Sid and Co. might be in tough to make the playoffs. Cooke is a role player. Satan has a hole where his heart should be. Continue…

A real beauty, that Cup

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 12:41 AM - 0 Comments

It’s shinier in person.

That might explain why 17,000 Pittsburgh Penguin fans stuck around tonight to clap eyes on the greatest trophy in professional sport—even as they booed the Detroit Red Wings for winning it. But the Stanley Cup got it’s proper reception when Henrik Zetterberg, the Conn Smythe-winning forward, took it out of Daniel Cleary’s hands. You could hear him up in the press box, hollering with joy as he hoisted the 35-pound bad boy over his head. 

More than making you forgive the Wings their automatonic play, it was a scene to remind you that the Cup’s effect is universal. Swedes, Finns, Russians, Canadians and Americans alike understand the meaning of winning it. 

“It’s just a great feeling I have right now,” beamed Zetterberg after the on-ice celebration, with the Conn Smythe perched beside him. Pittsburgh’s last-gasp effort was close enough to scare him, he acknowledged. But holding on for the 3-2 win was more than enough to make his year. “When I saw the puck behind the [Detroit] net, I looked at the clock and saw zero minutes and zero seconds, I was a pretty happy man.”

A number of things got settled here tonight. The age of wimpy Euro—or the Euro as addendum to a core of Canadian “leaders”—is officially over. To merely credit Nicklas Lidstrom as the first European captain to hoist Lord Stanley’s mug is to criminally understate the man’s impact through every shift of every game in this series. He is, in Pierre McGuire’s tired phrase, a monster in every respect. Zetterberg is dominant at both ends of the rink, never skirting the rough stuff, maintaining breakneck speed even as he’s clipped and smacked and head-hunted. Tonight, he scored one of the stranger Cup-winning goals in history by pulling the puck through his skates as he wheeled through centre, unleashing a shot that caught Pens goaltender Marc-André Fleury off guard; as it dribbled between his pads, Fleury sat back, knocking the thing in with his butt.

Tomas Holmstrom, another Swede, takes more abuse in front of the net than any player since Phil Esposito. Niklas Kronvall is an outright menace in the open-ice hitting department. Datsyuk stands his ground. So do Franzen and Filppula.

So Lidstrom had every right to claim his due when he appeared before the press horde tonight. Being the first Euro to captain a Cup winner is “something I’m very proud of,” he said. “I’ve been over here a long time. I watched Steve Yzerman hoist it up three times in the past, and I’m very proud of being the first European. I’m very proud of being captain of the Red Wings. So much history with the team and great tradition.” How can you argue with that?

Better yet that Lidstrom made one of those class-act gestures that would bring a tear to Don Cherry’s eye, handing it the Cup off first to Dallas Drake, a career plumber who toiled 15 seasons on four teams without winning a title. 

Second thing: the Penguins are closer to championship form than their critics thought. Yes, they were at least a couple of good defencemen short of beating a team like Detroit. Yes, GM Ray Shero will have a devil of a time improving the team while staying under the salary cap—especially if he plans to keep Marian Hossa. But the spectacle tonight of the Pens storming back on the Wings for the second game in a row, almost tying it on a Sidney Crosby backhander with centi-seconds left on the clock, is proof enough of what’s going on here. They showed character, as well as youth and talent.

Finally, the “system” is back in hockey. It is hard just now to pinpoint exactly what Detroit’s system is. “Venus fly trap” might fit, given their capacity to lunge from a full-bloom, run-and-gun game to collapsing around their prey back in their own slot. Yet there was Lidstrom himself uttering the dreaded word, crediting coach Mike Babcock with selling his charges on a strategic formula that would limit offensive opportunities. Again and again tonight, Pittsburgh rushes fell apart in the neutral zone under Detroit’s patented high-speed checking. It’s not obstruction, per se. Just very rapid recovery.

That’s the good news: the Red Wings’ template requires very fast forwards, very mobile defence, great stamina throughout the lineup. And they execute it brilliantly. I’m one of those who complains incessantly about their robotic efficiency. But it must be a joy for their partisans to behold.

Almost as great a joy as that shiny old Cup in Henrik Zetterberg’s Midas-like hands. What lucky fans they are.

Penguin power

By Charlie Gillis - Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM - 0 Comments

A brief venture into the belly of the Pittsburgh beast reveals a stunning level of attention to the Penguins—as much or more than I saw in Ottawa when the Sens reached the final last year.

Saw “Go Pens go” signs up in windows, banners on the buildings. School kids wore white to school today in solidarity with the team. Dozens of people on the street wearing jerseys.  Personal favourite was a gangsta kid—cornrows, Timberland workboots and all—wearing one of those ’70s era baby-blue replica jerseys. On the back: Evgeni Malkin, #71.

Wow. White Russian meets urban America…

UPDATE: They’re showing the game live on a jumbo screen outside the building, rain or shine. Right now it’s raining, and there’s an enormous crowd out there starting to party. I think we should give these people honorary Canadian citizenship.

Live, from Pittsburgh!

By Charlie Gillis - Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 12:33 PM - 0 Comments

That’s right, folks. The biggest Ball of Them All (six-three, to Frisco’s five-foot-nothing) is holed up in the Mellon Arena dungeon (aka the “Print Media Lounge”) in hope of catching a glimpse of Sid the Kid. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final promises to be a dandy, after Petr Sykora’s triple OT heroics on Monday night. And hey, they let us in! There must be some mistake…

A few notes following the Penguins’ morning skate:

• Fear and loathing over refereeing reigns. Detroit coach Mike Babcock teed off yesterday over a couple of goalie-interference penalties called against the Wings during overtime. Neither resulted in the deciding goal, but hey, who knows what might have happened if Zetterberg and Cleary hadn’t lost four of the 54 minutes of extra time? Notice Babcock’s pissy reference to “the other guy,” namely Pittsburgh skipper Michel Therrien, who’d spent the past few days beefing about subtle obstruction on the Automatons part.

First, Therrien laughed it off. “I’ve been going around this morning introducing myself as the other guy.” Then, in the true spirit of the game, he counter-punched, noting that the refs had been just as over-zealous protecting Wings minder Chris Osgood. “[Babcock] is complaining about calls and we’re complaining about non-calls,” Therrien said. “Obviously, he didn’t have a problem when Osgood got bumped and fell down on Ryan Malone. I didn’t hear any complaining about that.”

Ah, the sweet sound of playoff bitchiness.

• No line-up changes for the Pens. That means Sergei Gonchar, who left Game 5 with what appeared to be a wrenched back—yet returned to assist the winning goal—is playing. So is gritty Ryan Malone, who took a point shot to his schnozz, yet claims there are “no fractures.” Which is to say, no new ones. Big lift for Pittsburgh. Then again, says Sidney Crosby, this is the Stanley Cup Final: “It doesn’t surprise me. Unless they’re physically unable to get out there, they’re going to play.”

• Someone asked Crosby if he had determined whether he would drink champagne should the Pens win the Cup, not being of legal age in and all (it’s 21, and Crosby’s 20). Jesus, talk about an invitation to jinx yourself. Ever brilliant in the tap-dancing department, the Kid fobbed it off with clichés about having “a long way to go.”

Wings are on the ice now. Stay tuned.

The Kid's ok

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 11:15 AM - 0 Comments

When the Detroit papers are celebrating a Pens win in the Stanley Cup final, you know the series has gotten a little stale. But be careful what you wish for, boys. Momentum’s a fickle thing, and as invincible as the Wings have looked lately, they did go into a swoon around the middle of the season…

‘Nother common take: Sid the Kid put the team on his shoulders, a la Messier, and brought them back from dead. Like this writer, I’m a little less sure. It was a helluva game for Crosby, but his manner of taking over a game may never be as obvious as a Messier “guaranteed win” night, or a Gretzky flourish. I’ve been struck in the past (and written about) Sid’s peerless ability to make plays with one touch of the stick, which today’s style of play demands. His goals last night reflected that uncanny ability.

Either way, it is nice to see Pittsburgh back in this thing. Malkin wakes up and who knows what could happen.

The Old War horse Returns

By Steve Maich - Monday, May 26, 2008 at 2:35 PM - 0 Comments

We here at Balls are quivering in anticipation of Gary Roberts’ return to the Pittsburgh Penguin’s lineup tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. but we are inclined to give Michael Therrien a break for scratching the old warrior for game one. (That is to say I’m inclined to give the guy a break, and since I’m the only one who seems to be posting lately, I am invoking the “Royal We.”) Continue…