2008 Woodie Awards
Gretzky's greatness not challenged by Crosby
Benjamin Billman
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: Sports
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I watch "Pardon the Interruption." I read Sports Illustrated. I absorb sports information through my skin sometimes (or at least people tell me that).
However, there is someone that has been bugging me since...well, since he began playing in the NHL. That someone is Sidney Crosby.
Before all the maniac fans throw stones at me, let me get this straight. He's a wonderful, no, almost magical player. He is amazingly skilled, and he can make things happen on the ice with incredible timing and foresight.
But please, for the sake of hockey fans everywhere, stop comparing him to Wayne Gretzky.
I initially was incensed at this comparison last year, in a Sports Illustrated column about the upcoming NHL season. The author wrote something to the order of, if the goalies were smaller (referring to the growing size of goalie pads), and the game was the same as it had been in Gretzky's time, then Crosby would have better numbers than Gretzky.
It touched me a tad. I grew up on stories of how great Gretzky is. It's a bit like imagining how baseball fans feel hearing Barry Bonds compared to Hank Aaron.
But that comparison was nothing like I saw recently while watching "Pardon the Interruption."
One of the guests on the show said she had been a hockey fan all her young life, and lately she had begun shying away from the NHL because of its "lack of important players."
She went on to suggest that the NHL advertise Crosby much more, so they can entice disenchanted fans like her back into the fold.
How much more can they advertise him? Last year, I couldn't go five channels without catching a Crosby commercial.
I have only one thing to say to that. I hope they don't take her advice, because the NHL doesn't need fans (and I use the term loosely) like that.
The NHL needs people who will wear blinders to shield the neon lights that shine around the young Gretzky.
That way, they can see the true players of the league: the Nicholas Lindstroms, the Mike Modanos and the Joe Sakics of the NHL.
However, there is someone that has been bugging me since...well, since he began playing in the NHL. That someone is Sidney Crosby.
Before all the maniac fans throw stones at me, let me get this straight. He's a wonderful, no, almost magical player. He is amazingly skilled, and he can make things happen on the ice with incredible timing and foresight.
But please, for the sake of hockey fans everywhere, stop comparing him to Wayne Gretzky.
I initially was incensed at this comparison last year, in a Sports Illustrated column about the upcoming NHL season. The author wrote something to the order of, if the goalies were smaller (referring to the growing size of goalie pads), and the game was the same as it had been in Gretzky's time, then Crosby would have better numbers than Gretzky.
It touched me a tad. I grew up on stories of how great Gretzky is. It's a bit like imagining how baseball fans feel hearing Barry Bonds compared to Hank Aaron.
But that comparison was nothing like I saw recently while watching "Pardon the Interruption."
One of the guests on the show said she had been a hockey fan all her young life, and lately she had begun shying away from the NHL because of its "lack of important players."
She went on to suggest that the NHL advertise Crosby much more, so they can entice disenchanted fans like her back into the fold.
How much more can they advertise him? Last year, I couldn't go five channels without catching a Crosby commercial.
I have only one thing to say to that. I hope they don't take her advice, because the NHL doesn't need fans (and I use the term loosely) like that.
The NHL needs people who will wear blinders to shield the neon lights that shine around the young Gretzky.
That way, they can see the true players of the league: the Nicholas Lindstroms, the Mike Modanos and the Joe Sakics of the NHL.