What do you know, this year looks a lot like last year. Detroit vs Pittsburgh all over again. A few things have changed – Marian Hossa sold his soul and switched sides, the Ryans (Whitney and Malone) are gone, and the Penguins have a new guy behind the bench. Add in the fact that the Red Wings manhandled the Blackhawks (again, what the Canucks were supposed to do…but I digress)without arguably their two best players and hall of fame shoo-ins and this is probably be my easiest prediction yet (and I went two for two in round 3, if you hadn’t forgotten, although I did predict Carolina would take Pittsburgh to 7) But I’m a stubborn fool, so I’m calling it now: Pittsburgh in 7 games, a series in which they will come back from 3-1 hole.
The Penguins remind me too much of the Penguins of the early 90s, the ones with Lemieux, Jagr, and Francis – with Crosby, Malkin, and Staal filling those respective roles. I’m actually surprised the comparison isn’t thrown out more often. But the main reason I’m going with Pittsburgh is because of the first guy – Sidney Crosby.
He is extremely similar to another rising superstar in control of their sport – Lebron James. Both were dubbed ‘the chosen one’ long before they even entered their respective leagues, and the onslaught of criticism began the moment they had theri debuts. For Lebron, it was his free throw shooting. For Crosby, his loose temper.
The former’s team has struggled and is currently down 3-1 as we speak. However, there is no doubt of Lebron being the King of basketball now and everybody knows that any team he should always be favored against all odds. Even as he’s down, I still highly believe that his team will come back due to his leadership and his willingness to win. (Here’s an example) James currently leads his team in both scoring and shooting percentage. You don’t have to be a basketball analyst to understand that the more shots you take, the easier it is to have a lower shooting percentage. Many people score a lot of points by shooting a lot, but rarely do any score the most while doing it at 50 percent efficiency. To stat-pack some more, he also leads his team in assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, and minutes. But this is about hockey.
Just like Lebron has done in basketball, Crosby has also turned all his doubters into believers. He took a backburner to his fellow teammate and Alex Ovechkin during the regular season scoring title but while Malkin has struggled at times in these playoffs, Crosby has brought it: every. single. game. He went head to head with the supposed best in the game and took them all down: Mike Richards, Alex Ovechkin, and recently Eric Staal. People often note that Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zettleberg are two most skilled defensive offensive players in the league, but Crosby has impressed me immensely with his hustle and leadership on both ends. He has turned team-hoppers like Craig Adams into scoring options, made an unnoteworthy defense (quick: name 3 guys on the Penguins defense) look good, and perhaps even inspired Malkin to show his true colors (Remember him in last year’s playoffs? I don’t). I was never on the Crosby bandwagon, and I never believed for a second that he could one day rule the league the way Gretzky and Lemieux did. But his gritty and skilled play this spring has changed my outlook, and now I, along with everybody else are all just witnesses.
Penguins in 7. Book it.
