Can we lower Chosen One’s hype meter?
Tabloid- type treatment of Crosby is way over the top
Enough!
Hype! Already!
Sidney doffs his shirt for Vanity Fair! Sidney’s first shift lasts 75 seconds! Sidney records assist in first pre- season game!
Sidney goes to bathroom … cameras follow! Video at 11!
No offence to The Chosen One, but is there any chance we can dial down the hype meter on Sidney Crosby just a notch or two? He might even appreciate it.
There is no question Crosby is the most anticipated National Hockey League rookie since Eric Lindros in 1992. And the circumstances have aligned like the Northern Lights to make his arrival a far greater spectacle than Eric’s botched, Quebec-snubbing entry:
Hockey is undergoing a massive, post-lockout image makeover, which dovetails nicely with the arrival of a phenom such as Crosby.
Ageing stars such as Mark Messier, Scott Stevens and Ron Francis have moved on, setting the stage for the next wave of talent.
Canada is starved for hockey news and the sports forums have multiplied since Lindros was a pup. The Crosby story feeds the beast.
But this tabloid- type treatment of Crosby’s daily functions (He made a pass! He had a breakaway!) is way over the top. Until Wayne Gretzky came along, hockey was always nicely understated in its treatment of the game’s stars, let alone its star prospects.
Remember clips of a camerashy Rocket Richard appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show? And the Rocket was in his prime at the time. He wasn’t just some great expectation.
It must have been easier for players such as Richard, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull to find their way in the NHL. First, they showed themselves to be NHL stars, then they were treated as such.
In Richard’s case, contrary to overheated expectations, there were doubts about his ability to withstand the rigours of the NHL. Early injuries gave him a label of being too frail. He used the doubts to fuel the fire within.
Any professional player, of any era, would envy Crosby’s endorsement packages right out of junior. But wouldn’t it have been nice if the hype machine could have sat idling until “Kid Crosby” had at least a professional season under his belt?
Maybe he should just retire and write his memoirs. What’s left for Sidney after he’s already sat alongside Jay Leno and posed for Vanity Fair? What’s left after he reads the first biographies about his life, growing up to the ripe age of teenhood?
Crosby has been assigned the Gretzky role of selling hockey to the masses in the U.S. ( Look, folks, a Canadian hockey player with teeth). But Gretzky, remember, was already an established hockey superstar and a four-time Stanley Cup champion when Canada delivered him to Los Angeles to be a King.
Although the NHL has to be thrilled to see Crosby’s story spill over onto the entertainment pages, the overkill in sports is slightly embarrassing. Even in training camp scrimmages, Crosby’s every shift is described breathlessly by reporters. A national Canadian newspaper has planted a scribe in Pittsburgh for the season to cover his every game. Home and away.
Wonder how Mario Lemieux feels?
Lemieux has been a hockey superstar since he joined the Penguins in 1984. He’s a consensus pick as one of the top three hockey players of all time.
And yet, after Pittsburgh’s first exhibition game of the season, Magnificent Mario had to answer question after question about an 18-year-old rookie who hasn’t yet played a single game in the NHL.
Lemieux is passé. Crosby is now. Or is it tomorrow? It’s hard to tell in this rush to sainthood.
Typically, Lemieux handled every question with grace. Lemieux the franchise owner knows that the buzz about Sidney is good for ticket sales, in Pittsburgh and throughout the NHL. Mario is not about to turn off the tap.
Head coach Eddie Olczyk was similarly efficient in fielding enquires about No. 87, even if the buzz would have better suited a Stanley Cup Finals rather than a meaningless game in September.
Olczyk knows he’ll have to get used to it. Every game night this season and every day in between, he’ll be asked the Sidney questions. Sidney will have good nights and off-nights, but the scrums won’t take a night off.
Sadly, though not unexpectedly, all this Sidneymania has created a vocal anti- Crosby camp. Members of this camp are quite cynically hoping that he fails to live up to the hype. They want to see him humbled. The rest of us would simply appreciate a more level approach to covering the phenom before he’s even got his feet wet.
There are other potential rookie stars worthy of a look — Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Alex Ovechkin among them.
Unaffected, slightly nonplussed, Crosby makes us wonder how we’ve arrived at this curious time in hockey, when the rules have finally allowed for the kind of breathing room on the ice that the hype devours away from it.
CanWest News Service