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Is Sidney Crosby a dirty player?

Sidney Crosby, Olli Jokinen, Brandon Dubinsky

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby (87) fights with New York Rangers’ Olli Jokinen and Brandon Dubinsky during the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, March 4, 2010, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

AP

Maybe it’s just because it is the summer time or perhaps his gold medal winning goal forced people to eat some crow, but the cottage industry on hating Sidney Crosby dried up a bit lately.

For those of you who simply don’t have the same spring in your step unless the NHL’s golden child is getting run through the mud, you might find this little nugget interesting. A lot of bloggers are putting their own sardonic twists on Puck Daddy’s popular Mount Rushmore feature, so it’s little surprise that the irreverent Penguins blog The Pensblog created their “Mount Dirtymore” which chronicles the team’s dirtiest players of the last 20 years.

(Naturally, the “dirty” scoring system is based on the quantity of Cristina Aguileras each player “earns.”)

Keith Ballard, Sidney Crosby

Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard (2) and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby (87) fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, April 5, 2009, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

AP

Three of the players won’t leave Penguins fans (or fans of teams who despise the Penguins) with their jaws dropped by any means: Ulf Samuelsson is a notorious villain, Matt Cooke made plenty of enemies in his career, particularly last season and Billy Tibbets ... well, he’s just kind of creepy.

Yet casual fans might be surprised to see the Second Savior of the Franchise, Sidney Crosby on that Photoshop. Here is the explanation from Pensblog. (You should click on the link anyway, even if it’s just to see their “shocked faces” GIFs, which include Apollo Creed’s wife reacting to her boxer husband’s tragic in-ring death in “Rocky IV.”)

As is the case with all great players, they are constantly hounded, sticked, hooked, speared, etc., every time they hop over the bench.

Is that a built-in excuse for some of Crosby’s dirty plays? Most likely.
But you’ll be hard-pressed to find multiple clips of dudes like Kane and Toews doing this kind of stuff.

To me, there are two types of sports fans: pom-pom waving types who believe in their teams blindly and glass half-empty types who are willing to acknowledge the flaws of their favorites. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in either group, but I subscribe to the latter club and cannot deny that the same competitive fire that drives Crosby also pushes him to do some regrettable things. The considerable communal vitriol for Crosby can be over the top at times, but he does earn at least some of that disdain by breaking the rules.

Now that you have my take, I need to know how you feel. Is Crosby a dirty player or just a competitor? Cast your vote in the poll below.