Crosby responds to DN cover
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Crosby responds to DN cover
The gritty tabloid which has served Philadelphia so well over the past 87 years was placed in the lap of Penguins center Sidney Crosby on Wednesday morning.
Crosby, 24, said he had not seen Wednesday’s Philadelphia Daily News – which featured him dressed as a lion with the headline “The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney.”
Crosby picked up the paper and laughed.
“That’s probably one of the nicer things they’ve said about me here,” Crosby said.
Crosby was more focused on the Penguins avoiding their first sweep in 33 years.
In order to do so, the Penguins will have to do it without defenseman Paul Martin (undisclosed injury), forward James Neal (one-game suspension), forward Arron Asham (four-game ban), and forward Craig Adams (automatic one-game suspension).
“We’ve got to win a hockey game, that’s really all we’re thinking about,” Crosby said. “I think we have a lot of depth, that quality is something we pride ourselves on. We’re more than capable of providing offense here in one game.”
None of the Penguins seemed overly disappointed or surprised about Brendan Shanahan’s rulings. Defenseman Brooks Orpik, in fact, said he wished most could see what Shanahan’s decision process is like to truly appreciate how tough his job can be.
Neal, a 40-goal scorer, is a significant loss. But so is Adams, who is one of Pittsburgh’s top penalty killers. The Flyers have victimized Pittsburgh on the power play, connecting on 6-of-10 opportunities over the first three games.
Now, the Penguins are without their top forward on the PK and a defenseman who also sees time on that unit.
“Somebody else has to step up,” Orpik said. “(Adams) played a lot of minutes. But no matter who is on the penalty kill, it’s not going to change how aggressive you are or how you play it. Someone else is just going to get more minutes.
“Penalty killing takes a lot of out of guys. We’ve watched a lot of video. Just like our 5-on-5 play, we’ve been making a lot of mistakes – uncharacteristic mistakes that we don’t really have a reason for them. They’re not effort mistakes, just maybe mental focus.”
Now, the Penguins are expected to drop four relative rookies – with Eric Tangradi, Joe Vitale and Dustin Jeffrey up front and Ben Lovejoy on the back-end – into an Eastern Conference quarterfinal pressure cooker.
“It’s not any other (game),” coach Dan Bylsma said. “I know the group of guys in there plan on winning our first game here in Philly.”
When asked about his team’s mental state, Bylsma said “I think we’re ready to be at our best tonight.”
And that mental fragility, after being beaten every which way through the first three games of the series, will be the most interesting factor. Unfortunately, Game 4 – judging by the way the series has gone – probably won’t be able to tell much in the first five or 10 minutes.
“Individually, we haven’t been very good,” Orpik said. “We can’t change the outcome of the first three games. We’ve just got to try not to make the same mistakes.”
For the latest updates, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @DNFlyers
I hate to say it, but I think all of the injuries and suspensions will actually help the Pens. We are talking about 3 guys (Adams, Asham, Martin)who have played terribly. The callups can't do any worse. Neal looks like the big loss here, but who knows, if the callups play really good defensively that will surely make up for the loss of production from Neal.— cdobsox- I have my doubts about tonight. I predict they'll drop tonights game and wrap it up on Friday.— Paul1215
Comment removed.- I hope the Flyers don't get caught up in all this hype and goonery. If so, they will get beat soundly. Lavi needs to make sure they keep focused and finish them off. Let's go boys!— andrewc23
- The Pens will have an emotional "win one for the team" bump at the start. It's even more important than usual for the Flyers to take that away. With the Pens so short-handed, the Flyers have to use their depth and win THIS game. Don't give them any encouragement...— akh
- Orpik said someone else needs to step up. He probably means he needs to do a better job of head hunting. I don't see tonight's game as being anywhere near as rough as Sunday. I think it's going to be an all out speed game. Don't plan on any stupid retaliation from the Flyers. They don't need any suspensions.
- Let's not get our panties in a bunch girls. The Flyers are definitely not going to get involved in "goonery" and are going to win it tonight.— lulu
- Tonight's game should be interesting as I expect Pitt to play it closer and not take as many chances considering they're missing a few players. Would be a big boost for the Flyers if they could get on the scoreboard first and turn up the pressure early. That said, winning the 4th game of any series is the toughest game to win. Go Flyers!— iggles23
- Lovejoy is terrible. He should have gotten assists on some Flyers goals in Gm 1 and 2. Neal is a huge loss. If Flyers get up on them, Pens will begin to look like they want to go home.— JWB109
- Pasted this from other article on philly.com/sports/flyers. Funny! Courtesy of HockeyAntics
PG13+/animation
http://youtu.be/bQHDyDiE1fA : Don Cherry & Sidney Crosby discuss Pens-Flyers 2012 playoffs— Ringoes Jim - I sort of wish PDN would have taken the high road on this but I guess a tabloid is as a tabloid does.— regassert6
- The TV network said there will be a 5th game,so.....— TEDcGEGI
- Dan, I think if your team gets down a goal or two they're going to roll over like little babies and start thinking about their golf games.— PhillySubsMac
- All this negativity. For f's sake your team is playing great hockey and you 5 whining commenters so far are hedging your teams game tonight saying you think they will lose. I remember when the Phils won the world series one of the things that players said immeadiately was that the Fans were great that year because no matter what they remained positive and upbeat where as in years past most fans thought the world was going to end if they lost and therefore were constantly negative. So I say the Flyers are going to win because they are the better TEAM...— Atlas
- Sir, your logic and even temperament has no place on these boards! Lol, just kidding. I agree that there is no reason to expect a loss. Possible, sure, that's why the play the game. Likely, nah.
— verve
