Is Sidney Crosby Soothing?

Can watching Sidney Crosby soothe the soul and ease the mind?

It certainly can, if you watch his exploits, rather than some thuggish activity that seems to make all of the headlines.

From TSN.ca:

Here's a suggestion for critics of hockey; instead of complaining about the problem of violence in the sport just sit down on the couch and actually watch Sidney Crosby play a game.

How many times do we need to see the image of Chris Simon whacking Ryan Hollweg in the face with his stick or watch as Todd Fedoruk gets carried off the ice on a stretcher after getting knocked out in a fight?

That's not to say that those incidents aren't important, but there are also amazing things happening in hockey and a great deal of them come from the stick of a certain 19-year-old scoring machine from Nova Scotia.

To be fair, when the sports news channels do find the time to report on hockey and there isn't a scandal to talk about, they are likely to mention Crosby before all other players. And with good reason because the future of the Penguins franchise is lighting up the scoreboard and making his team a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

Sure, there are plenty of thugs in the NHL that damage the sport with their violent antics, but are those incidents so prevalent that we should forget how great hockey can be when someone as skilled as Crosby takes the ice? I think not.

Well, we know the media, especially in the USoA, loves violence and unusual events. Sidney doing amazing things with the puck is fun to watch, but not that unusual. Seeing Chris Simon hack Ryan Hollweg across the face is NOT the usual activity in hockey, despite with some mediots might want you to think.

Penguins 6 - Leafs 5 (OT): Jordan Staals Toronto

It was a wild night between the Leafs and the Penguins, and Sidney was almost just a spectator to the night's events.

The Penguins won 6-5, thanks to the hat-trick heroics of young Jordan Staal, who, like Sidney, is also not legal age to drink alky in the US o A.

The wildness was not limited to the scoreboard, as Ronald Petrovicky and Kris Newbury had a fight that will be talked about for some time...
Hockey Rants has more on the fight, including the video clip!

Recap from NHL.com:

Jordan Staal capped a tight game with his first career hat trick in a city he dreamed about playing in.

Staal scored his third goal of the game at 3:54 of overtime to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Staal has seven goals in the last five games for the Penguins, who have points in 13 straight games (11-0-2) for the first time since a 14-game run (12-0-2) from Dec. 19, 1996, to Jan. 21, 1997.

The 18-year-old forward - from North Bay, Ontario - said he was nervous playing in front of a national television audience on CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada."

"It's a dream come true to even play in this rink," Staal said. "I remember watching games a couple of years ago. Now that I'm here, it's so amazing. A great game to top it off."

Staal has 23 goals, four behind teammate Evgeni Malkin for the NHL rookie lead.

"It seems like everything is working for me," Staal said. "Hopefully, I'll keep it going and get this team in the playoffs."

Veteran teammate Mark Recchi said Staal has been "unbelievable."

"We've had a lot of guys chip in, but Jordan has been tremendous for us through this stretch," Recchi said. "It's remarkable to me how he's just kept getting better and better from Day 1 of the season. He never played left wing before."

Maple Leafs center Kris Newbury was taken off the ice on a stretcher late in the third period after a fight with Pittsburgh's Ronald Petrovicky. The Toronto forward took several punches to the head before falling to the ice. He stayed motionless for several minutes before taken being off.

The two dropped gloves 33 seconds after Pittsburgh tied it at 5, and the game was delayed for about 6 minutes.

"He's alert and he was on the ice when he left," Toronto coach Paul Maurice said. "He's conscious and talking. We'll test him out tonight and tomorrow."

Maurice said it reminds him how violent the game can be.

"It doesn't matter how tough you are or how many punches you've taken if you get hit in the right spot you're going down," Maurice said. "It's a pretty serious business when they drop those gloves."

As for Sidney, he finished with just a lone assist and EVEN in 21:03. It's nice to see the Penguins can rack up a few points when Sidney isn't always the star of the night.