Enough of the whining

We'll file this under, hockey fans with no basis of knowledge. NHL fans outside of Pittsburgh constantly make the mistake of labeling Sidney Crosby a complainer or "whiner".

I'm willing to admit in his first two years in the league, he did complain a lot. This was more due to his age (18) and the fact he came from Juniors where hitting is more regulated. In the past two seasons, his complaining has dropped off the cliff faster than Wile E. Coyote. Sidney Crosby is the captain of the Pens and like it or not the league's franchise player. It's a fact across sports that star athletes get calls. Michael Jordan received about 1,000,000 in his favor, famously pushing off of Byron Russell to hit a game-winning shot against the Jazz. Kobe, LeBron, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, etc, all receive the benefit of the doubt.

As the Captain, he is also REQUIRED to speak to the referee concerning any penalties, goal disputes, or general discussion. Do not fault the fact he can actually communicate with the Refs, unlike Ovechkin.

Fans also take runs at him because he has "enforcers" on the team protecting him. This is also true, however every "GREAT" player has had one. Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Hull. The reason being the steady increase in the amount of cheap shots, which only tailed off after the Todd Bertuzzi incident (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz9RE9RGrVY).

The reason is simple, why wouldn't you want your top playmaker healthy and on the ice? Other teams will send guys after him constantly, either trying to check, injure, get him off his game. This includes goading him into a fight, 5 minutes without your best player is a huge disadvantage. It's simple math, without that playmaker, your team will win.

If you dig deeper into the facts, most of you will be surprised that Sid the Kid has been in TWICE as many fights as Ovechkin. Ovechkin also has been suspended TWICE as many times as Sid for hits that clearly had the intent to injure.

Call the league's premier playmaker what you want. He's not the next Lemieux or Gretzky, but he's a Hall of Fame talent regardless. The statistics do not lie. He is a more complete OVERALL player than Ovechkin or anyone else in the league. Constantly interacting with the Refs and understanding what they are looking for is a huge part of the game. Anyone that follows or plays knows this.

So rather than basing your complaint of Crosby whining on facts from years ago, why not face the current facts. In the past year he's lead his teams to a Stanley Cup and Gold Medal. I'll take that any day over a great goal scorer, who plays physical and borderline dirty. Knee-to-knee hits end careers, just ask Cam Neely.

If you don't know who he is, consider this your NHL history lesson.

The facts don't lie and neither do I.