Back in black.

I was away for a little while. But just because I haven't been writing it doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention. I'm going to start off with Crosby and see where it leads. He's been back less than a week and he's already got everybody in circles buzzing. The haters are hating and the lovers are loving. Love him or hate him, he certainly hasn't left many indifferent. The great ones rarely do. A quick recap is in order. After being out of the game since last January, Sidney Crosby played his first game since coming back from a concussion against the lowly New York Islanders on Monday November 21st. He scored two goals, both coming from backhand shots, and added two assists. It was a night when all the hockey world was watching. CBC sent the HNIC crew down to Pittsburgh, a rare event on a Monday night. He was of course, named the game's first star. His second game didn't go quite so well. A gritty and physical St-Louis Blues team came to town, and although no one can accuse them of abusing Sidney Crosby, they did check him very closely and showed that they were not just going to late him skate around and put on a show. And this frustrate Sid, and he took some penalties. Result? The Blues win in OT, and Sidney is left off the score sheet, save his 6 PIM. The third game, a Friday night affair, the Ottawa Senators arrived at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Sens try hard, but they just don't have the talent that the Pens have and go down to the score of 6-3. Other than the fact that Crosby picked up three more points, all in the form of assists, what has people talking is a goalmouth shoving match he got into with the Sens' Nick Foligno. After Foligno got all tangled up with Pens goalie M-A Fleury for what seemed like the umpteenth time, Crosby and the tenacious Sens forward got their sticks up and Sid threw what some think is an elbow, others think was a butt end, to Foligno's head. No damage was done. But given that anything involving the head gets everybody's attention, this one made some hockey observers jump up and start pointing around like the little kid in 3 grade we all used to hate, saying "Did you see that? Did you see that? Crosby swung at him and almost hit him!" Sure he swung at him. If somebody starts getting comfortable rolling around on the ice with your goalie, you do something about it. I think we can excuse Crosby for not having the pugulistic skills of a Milan Lucic or Zenon Konopka. He's not a fighter, never was. So he dealt with it the way he could, "no harm, no foul, nothing to see here" as far as I'm concerned. As for Don Cherry saying that Crosby should be more "like Lafleur", I stopped listening to what Cherry had to say on the subject of Sidney Crosby many years ago. I'm not saying that Cherry doesn't know what he's talking about, I just disagree. And so it was that Sid and the Pens showed up in Montreal with a Saturday night date with Hockey Night in Canada, wrapping up the first week nicely. Crowds met the Pens everywhere they went. At the hotel, security was needed to help navigate Crosby through the crowds, and he couldn't take the bus with his teammates as the throngs at the player's entrance at the Bell Centre were too large. He was taxied directly into the building. Reminds me of the Beatles or something. Anyway, the Pens took it 4-3 in OT. The real story tonight was Kris Letang who took a Max Pacioretty shoulder to the face, breaking his nose, late into the game. In OT, the script dictated that Letang would score the winner, broken sniffer and all, reminding us all that those hockey players are a bunch of tough SOBs. Sid picked up another assists, and was of course a factor the whole way through. His line for the week looks like this. 4 games, in 5 nights. 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points, and a plus minus of +7. Not a bad first week.