Sidney Crosby unfazed by Connor McDavid’s temper tantrum vs. Canucks: ‘It’s hockey’

On By Littum

LOS ANGELES – Very few players in hockey history can relate to the kind of attention and abuse on the ice that Connor McDavid receives on a regular basis.

Sidney Crosby is one of them.

McDavid, after being held to the ice by Vancouver’s Conor Garland for a handful of seconds in the final moments of the Canucks’ 3-2 win on Saturday, lost his temper and cross-checked the Canucks in the face. That earned McDavid a three-game suspension, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Monday.

“I saw the cross-check,” Crosby recounted Athletics after the Penguins’ morning skate in Los Angeles on Monday, about three hours before the suspension was levied. “But I couldn’t tell if it was his glove or his stick that hit him in the face.”

Crosby said he thinks it makes a difference. In other words, if it was McDavid’s glove that hit Garland in the face, it wasn’t a huge deal. But if it was his cane, then that’s a different story.

“It’s hard to tell how bad it was from the angle that was available,” Crosby said. “You’re splitting hairs.”

Crosby has faced significant abuse in his NHL career, most notably being cross-checked in the head by the New York Rangers’ Marc Staal and the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Brandon Dubinsky. He’s also more than familiar with what Garland did to McDavid.

Throughout hockey history, great players have to deal with such things and don’t always get the benefit of the doubt from the officials.

Crosby and McDavid have never been teammates at any level, but that will change next month when they will both represent Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston. As he has for more than a decade, Crosby will captain Team Canada. McDavid will enter the tournament universally regarded as the world’s greatest current player.

Crosby held that distinction for many years and possesses a unique understanding of McDavid’s situation. Crosby has dropped the gloves in frustration 10 times in his career, most recently in November when he fought Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor. Crosby has never been disciplined by the NHL and has never been involved in an incident like this.

McDavid has never been rated as a big man, although he dropped the gloves twice while playing for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League.

“It looks like anything,” Crosby said. “Sometimes your emotions get the best of you. It’s a physical sport. The one time you saw it, you probably didn’t see the nine hits that Connor took. Those are the ones that never reach the high points. When you retaliate, you make the highlights.”

Crosby knew there was a good chance McDavid would be suspended. While the Penguins captain grimaced when talking about the idea of ​​cross-checking someone in the face, he seemed relatively unfazed.

“Whether it’s him or anybody else, it’s an emotional game,” Crosby said. “It’s going to happen sometimes. If there were calmer or cooler circumstances, he probably wouldn’t have done it.”

Of course, the circumstances were neither calm nor cool.

“It’s hockey,” Crosby said.

(Photo: Jeanine Leech / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)