It’s not Crosby’s fault that he’s getting so much attention.
Like Ovechkin, he’s a generational player, and we have been spoiled to get two of these guys at the same time. We are really lucky.
However, Crosby’s Canadian, so by default Sid has a stronger handle on the English language than Alex. As the league continues to reinvent itself, (and as many would say, often unnecessarily) it’s followed the NBA route of marketing the entire sport around single players, despite hockey being very much a TEAM sport. Given this, centering the focus around Crosby is an obvious choice for NBA-minded Bettman.
All that being said, the sheer amount of hype generated around this kid has become freaking overkill for the true fans of the NHL. And I don’t mean recently, I mean last season, or the one before that. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Versus is contractually bound to mention Crosby’s name a certain amount of times per NHL broadcast, no matter who is playing. It really does get sickening and tiresome, and despite my normally rigid objectivity (or at least as objective as any fan can ever be), I’ve developed a distaste for the guy not for his occasional diving, exaggeration of injury or mouthing to the refs (plenty of other guys do that too), but on the basis of his being mentioned far too often by NHL media types.
I realize that the tactic of repeating the same name over and over again might help the sport break through to potential new fans, but who are these fans? You can’t follow a hockey game casually in a champagne-equipped skybox and expect to know what’s going on. It’s simply too fast- what transpires after each drop of the puck does not get replayed in slow-motion brought to you by (insert corporate sponsor here)-cam in thirty different angles. And sorry Bettman, no matter how much you try to sterilize the current NHL and alienate your base, you’ll simply have to invent a new game altogether to land the safety-first soccer moms.
Again, no offense to CrosbyInc®, but for us die-hards, your tireless mention by the media often comes across as a disservice to the MANY other greats in the current NHL. And when it’s stapled into every third sentence of a NHL broadcast that does not feature the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s downright disrespectful to the equally important teams at battle that night.
Oh, and by the way Versus, bring back Bill Clement.
