Bright: Healthy Crosby Benefits Flyers
Easily the most detested, scathed and ridiculed player the Flyers have faced since 2005, Sidney Crosby has played the part of shining white knight to Philadelphia’s dark side bullies with perfection.
With his nice-boy image and his sparkling reputation around the league, the 24-year-old is everything the Flyers aren’t. As the poster-child for the new NHL, he is the Flyers’ antithesis. He is their most recognizable nemesis.
So when the news broke on Monday that Crosby’s concussion symptoms have continued to haunt him and that he might not be cleared to participate by the start of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ training camp, it isn’t just the NHL and the Penguins who should groan, Flyers fans should be there too.
“There are no dates,” Penguins general manager Ray Shero told USA Today, talking about a timetable for Crosby’s return. “When he is cleared to play, he is cleared to play. We are thinking bigger picture here. I’ve always told Sid, you will never be pressured to play or pressured to practice.”
Crosby has yet to fully shake the brain injury that cost him 41 games because of concussion issues. Without him, the Penguins fizzled in the regular season and playoffs to allow the Flyers to take the Atlantic Division, but the cross-state rivalry didn’t feature the same punch or violent voracity.
The Flyers took the civilized season series 4-1-1.
For any reasonable fan, watching the best player in hockey score in buckets against their team is not a signal for any sort of pleasant feelings, especially Flyers fans who have already seen Crosby bury 62 points against them in his career.
But hockey, like all sports, is a drama. The theatrics need a love, a hate and all characters in between. Storylines develop and controversy forces conversation. They break for summer intermission and return in the fall to kick-start the old feuds and begin new ones.
The truth of the matter is that the storybook tale of a long Flyers season isn’t quite the same without them trying valiantly to slay their enemy — to beat the boss — to win the game within the game — to take down Crosby. And now, that ongoing, emotional and ultimately exciting feud is now put on hold because of cryptic brain injury.
But if fun and electric atmosphere doesn’t have the fans clamoring for a Crosby recovery, what his injury represents might.
The Flyers are an organization built on toughness, grit and fighting. Pushing the game to its physical limits and forcing the competition to match. That’s the philosophy. However, for the anti-fighting circles, who are slowly gaining traction in trying to phase the physical aspect of the game out, Crosby’s concussion and inability to get healthy is nuclear warhead in their arsenal.
The line is that the best player in the game is a victim of needed aggression and now owners around the league are losing revenue because ticket sales are down without Crosby.
It’s not the right thinking for a game built on brawn, but it’s hard to defend.
When weighing the options of whether hockey life is better or worse without The Chosen One, take a closer look as to what Crosby, the healthy enemy, adds to the Flyers’ long season and the Broad Street Bullies’ agenda.
Comments