[ricebondsmntna2young]

Any thoughts on whether this 1st Round series is doing permanent harm to Crosby's legacy? What if the Pens get thrashed in a 4th straight game?

Will getting swept in the 1st Round matter in the long run? Or will it become an insignificant blip in a long illustrious career, one of the crazy unpredictable things that just can happen in the Playoffs?


My two cents...

A large part of the Crosby mystique comes from his success (at a young age) in the playoffs. His regular season per-game stats have been the best in the league and trending up, but the thing that sets him apart from other suitors for Best Player in the World (like Stamkos, Ovechkin, Giroux, Datsyuk, and even Malkin) is that he wills teams to championships.

Other players have put up comparable numbers but Crosby is considered "next-level" precisely because he doesn't allow his team to lose the way they did in Game 3 with so much on the line, with so little dignity. If he's healthy and his team's healthy and they lose, it is going to have to be a game 7 SCF fight to the proverbial death against a Red Wings dynasty...or at least it was.

Personally, I don't know if I'll ever look at Crosby the same way after this weekend.