NHL Dynasties: Future Defeats Past

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

A message for all you Crosby-haters:

Call him soft, call him a whiner, even call him a baby, just as long as you call him a champion! He is the youngest captain to ever hoist Lord Stanley's Cup, and led his team to a clinching game on the road in all four series.

Sure, he scored only one goal and two assists in the Finals, but that does not make him a choker. That one goal was more than Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, and Pavel Datsyuk combined for in the last two series, and they have seven rings between them.

And throughout this year's playoffs, no one scored more goals. Only teammate (and Conn Smythe winner) Evgeni Malkin had more assists and points than Sid the Kid.

And he did it all as the most-scrutinized player in the game. No one is more revered and reviled at the same time. He is blamed for being the face of the league by more than just Flyers fans.

Opposing coach Mike Babcock said that after seeing all the video of Sid in the 2008 Finals, "I thought they'd won it". Bleacher Report NHL Community Leader Ken Armer who suggested he would rather have a guy the same age who scored 15 fewer points than Sid's worst season (2007-08) when he missed almost 30 games.

(For the record, Ken is a great writer despite this obvious bias...now if we can just get him to decide whether he is a fan of the Anaheim Ducks or their rival Dallas Stars.)

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