Jun 4, 2016
Thumbs to Crosby, Blues' decision on Hitchcock
TSN's Dave Hodge gives thumbs up to Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby for giving the Stanley Cup Final the star quality he is supposed to provide, and also gives thumbs up to the St. Louis Blues for hanging onto head coach Ken Hitchcock.
By Dave Hodge
The three leading scorers in the Stanley Cup playoffs are San Jose Sharks - Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns.
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ leading scorer is Phil Kessel.
Penguins’ rookies Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary were the goal-scoring stars in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final.
And the player everyone is talking about is Sidney Crosby.
Who’s to argue with that? Crosby is minus-1 in the plus-minus ratings. So what?
The Sharks say he cheats on face-offs. Their sense of desperation shows.
If he doesn’t score another point, Crosby is set to win the Conn Smythe Trophy should the Penguins beat San Jose twice more.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan calls Crosby the team’s inspirational leader, and it looks and feels that way. Sid has long worn the “C”, but now he’s more than a captain.
The smiling look on his face after he planned and executed the winning draw and strategy that led to Sheary’s Game 2 winner would have fit any proud father celebrating the accomplishments of a child.
Sidney Crosby has been called hockey’s greatest player when he was obviously that, and also when he wasn’t. Now, there’s a better description. He is showing the Sharks and everyone watching that he is hockey’s most complete player.
The NHL is competing for attention with the NBA Finals. You don’t need to be a basketball fan to admit that Stephen Curry and LeBron James are reasons to watch the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Stanley Cup Final has at least one of its own. “Thumbs up” to Sidney Crosby for giving it the star quality he is supposed to provide.
Blues' Brother
The San Jose Sharks are still hoping to win their first Stanley Cup, and they will lament the missed opportunity if they don’t, but maybe not as much as the St. Louis Blues did when they lost the Western Conference Final.
The Blues have waited longer than any other team to be NHL champions, and they now face a series of decisions that cannot be easy.
The first one has been made, and the retention of head coach Ken Hitchcock speaks to the obvious hunger that remains after this year’s playoff run.
Hitchcock claims he will leave coaching after the 2016-17 season. Assistant coaches Kirk Muller and Brad Shaw have already left St. Louis, which is no surprise given the uncertainty created by Hitch’s plan.
Prominent free agents David Backes and Troy Brouwer should be re-signed if the Blues are to pick up where they left off, but those players, like the two coaches, are bound to look beyond next season when making important career decisions.
They’ll get answers from other suitors that the Blues can’t provide.
The Blues had the option of moving on from Hitchcock now and they chose to stay the course. He is their best bet to take the current lineup, with or without Backes and Brouwer, to the Stanley Cup Final next season, and “thumbs up” to the Blues for giving him that chance. He hardly deserved to be fired, as it were. It remains to be seen, however, if the Blues have made the right choice for the bigger picture.