- Mario's health
- Crosby's attitude (whining, diving, etc.)
- Recchi v Crosby. ESPN Radio's Andy Strickland reports:
"Superstar Sidney Crosby has been no stranger to his share of controversy during his young NHL career. A very reliable source tells me that Pittsburgh forward Mark Recchi skated up to referee Kevin Pollack during a recent game in which Crosby was handed a 10 minute misconduct, Recchi told the ref to tell Crosby to shut his mouth.
Recently things got so bad between Recchi and Crosby that Recchi went to Mario Lemieux and told him he can no longer room with Crosby on the road. Recchi had had it with Crosby’s know it all attitude." - Arena troubles - The Penguins have said they will move if they don't get a new arena (Mellon Arena is old). The local politicians are seemingly trying to sabotage the effort at every turn. The Penguins may relocate to Kansas City or Las Vegas. Who knows?
- Now, Ziggy Palffy came out and said he is going to retire. He is one of the few players actually producing right now and the impression I get is this will be a sooner rather than later deal. He has shoulder pain and the doctor told him a third surgery isn't an option. [Update: Palffy's camp updated this and he is now retired. He was the second leading scorer on the team, after Crosby.]
This team is in dire straights, even though they picked up "The Next One" in the draft. Crosby is incredibly gifted, but I'm not a big fan. I don't even think he's the best rookie this year - that would be Ovechkin (with Svatos and Lundquist presenting strong cases as well). The chemistry on this team, by all reports, is horrible. When is the last time a rookie has been given a de facto leadership position? It's too much, too quickly and it's a mistake.
Crosby is a great player, but he's not a leader yet. There are too many veterans in that locker room for an 18 year old kid to be the assistant captain. Let him be a kid, let him be a rookie and have fun. The position that Pittsburgh and Mario have placed him in (the "saviour" of the franchise) is unfair.
[Thursday morning update] And now the Pens are officially for sale.
Meanwhile, the Steelers are busy trying to kill their fans, one at a time. It was a serious situation, but the guy is OK. That being said, it's also incredibly funny. You have to be able to laugh at life sometimes.
[Late Update] OK, this made me laugh so hard I started tearing up. I was reading Page 2 on ESPN.com and I came upon this paragraph. This is even more funny if you've ever seen wrestling on TV.
The Jim Ross Award for Best Moment that Could Have Been Made into a Fantastic Story Line
To Mike Vanderjagt for shanking that season-ending field goal, which looked like one of Ali Haji Sheikh's efforts if you were playing the 1982 Giants at the All-Madden Level and completely screwed up the kicking wheel. After all of Vanderjagt's problems with Manning over the years, I kept waiting for the postgame press conference when Vanderjagt pretended to be upset, answered a few questions, and then suddenly Bill Cowher's music started playing (with Cowher dressed as Sergeant Slaughter), followed by Vanderjagt breaking into a big smile, and then the two of them hugging as Jim Ross screamed "No! No! No! My God, no!" Then Vanderjagt would rip off his Colts jersey to reveal a Steelers jersey underneath. This would have been one of the five greatest moments in sports history. And you know what? There's still time.
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