The Crosby Show

Pardon the overused pun in the title, but what I watched tonight was quite a show. Or, rather, a display of skill at a level that is very rarely matched.

Tonight, Sidney Crosby tallied 6 points (1g, 5a) and led his Penguins to an 8 – 4 victory over their rivals from Philly. Darryl was on fire. This was a treat for me for two reasons. First, I am a great fan of dominating athletes. For some reason, I am fascinated by what drives someone to surpass themselves night in and night out. Second, I really hate the Flyers.

In order to eliminate profanity from this post, I’ll stick to my first point (I still can’t believe Bob F**king Clarke still has anything to do with hockey).

In all the years I’ve watched hockey, I have always focused on the players that excel and I’ve tried to figure out why. The obvious answer is skill, but, to me, that’s only part of the equation. Apart from Mario Lemieux, Alex Kovalev is probably the most skilled player to lace up skates (I’m talking pure skill here folks, not hockey sense). He is a great skater and has the hands of a God. He can shoot as hard and as accurately as anyone I’ve ever seen and he can make great feather passes and deflections. He’s the full package. Why then, can’t he put up “star” numbers? The simple answer is lack of “desire” or “passion”.

So, in essence, the perfect combination of skill and passion should create the optimal player. With players like Crosby, their skill and passion ratings are off the charts. I’ve watched Sid play many games and I have yet to see him take even part of a shift “off”. It doesn’t matter that he’s surrounded, mostly, by guys who would have trouble making it to the 4th line on most teams, he is driven to win and will pull no punches.

Now, watching the game on TSN, it was made very clear that Pierre Maguire has a huge man crush for Crosby (maybe because of this). He declared, unequivocally, that Crosby is the best player in the league.

It’s hard to argue with him. Crosby just took over the scoring lead and he has at least three games in hand on most of the guys in the top 5.

That being said, Maguire’s broadcast partner, Gord Miller, brought Pierre back to earth when he said that some people in the west might claim that Jarome Iginla is considered by many to be the best in the business right now.

Now, there’s a debate for the ages (well, not really, but an interesting one nonetheless). Both players are currently carrying the team on their backs and both are amazing players. Iggy is the most complete player and Crosby is the most offensively gifted player.

I guess it comes down to the age old question: If you were to build a team around one of these two players, which one would you pick?

To tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue. The only thing I want to think of right now is when those two represent Canada on the international stage (2008 World Cup of Hockey?). Iggy as Captain and Crosby as the offensive dynamo. Now that will be a show worth seeing.