Weighing in
Growing list of championships proof Penguin’s captain one of hockey’s great leaders
Columnist Joe MacIntyre says Sidney Crosby deserves a sport among NHL’s best all-time players.
If there was ever any doubt as to where Sidney Crosby fits with hockey’s all-time greats, those doubts were erased after an outstanding performance in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. He was an easy choice for MVP as, game in and game out, he was the best player on the ice. The tenacity in his play and his will to win are unmatched in today’s game. His growing list of championship wins is proof that he is a great leader and we might even say the greatest leader since Mark Messier. If you play on Crosby’s team, how can you give anything less than a supreme effort when you see Crosby’s efforts on a nightly basis?
He came back from a fifth concussion suffered early in the second playoff round and led the Penguins to their third Stanley Cup in the last eight years with him as captain. Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are probably the top four players to ever play the game. Many would agree that you can add Sidney Crosby to that list and make it a top five.
AHL CHAMPIONS
The Grand Rapids Griffins won their second American Hockey League championship
in the last five years this past week, beating the Syracuse Crunch in six games.
The Griffins also beat the Crunch in six games to win the 2013 Calder Cup.
The Griffins are the top farm team of the Detroit Red Wings, while the Crunch are the top affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Wings missed the playoffs for the first time since 1991 and the Griffins win puts a positive spin on a very disappointing season in the Motor City.
Playoff MVP Tyler Bertuzzi, former Cape Breton Screaming Eagle Evgeny Svechnikov, and
Tomas Nosek are three Griffins expected to make the jump to Detroit next year.
The week ahead in the NHL will be really interesting to say the least with both the expansion and amateur drafts taking place during the next nine days. There is expected to be a flurry of player movement leading up to the amateur draft next Saturday in Chicago. Ahead of that, teams will have to submit their protected lists by Sunday for the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights to select their team, which will be named on June 21 at the NHL awards.
The trading has already
started with Jonathan Drouin being dealt from Tampa Bay to Montreal for promising young defenceman Mikhail Sergachev. The Canadiens get themselves a real good, young player who should fit in well in Montreal. Drouin is coming off a career-best 22-goal season and I guess in today’s NHL that qualifies him for a $33 million, six-year contract. It seems rich in both the amount and term of the contract for a yet unproven player but teams continue to dish out the big money and hope for the best. If you like the business side of hockey, you should love what takes place in
the NHL in the days ahead.
HARNESS RACING
Harness racing is at its best on Saturday night as the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup takes place at Mohawk Raceway in Toronto where the top threeyear-olds will contest Canada’s richest horse race. Almost $2.7 million in purse money is up for grabs on the 15-race card, which will make for great racing. Dr. J Hanover is in to go in Race 5 in his first start after setting a new Canadian record of 1:46:4 two weeks ago at the same track. That trip was also a world record for four-year-old geldings.
MLB DRAFT
There were 20 Canadians selected this past week in Major League Baseball’s Amateur Draft. Pickering, Ont.’s Landon Leach, a right-handed pitcher was chosen 37th overall by the Minnesota Twins, making him the top Canadian chosen. Ten from Ontario, five from B.C., three from Quebec and two Albertans make up the 20 Canadians chosen. I guess there is good reason why these four provinces win the majority of Baseball Canada’s national championships.
The last Islander chosen was Morgan Carlile back in 2004 when the New York Mets selected him in the 48th round, 1,417th overall.