By Jesse Liebman
Hockey players are notoriously known to be a superstitious bunch. There are numerous examples: Patrick Roy was widely known to talk to his goalposts and refused to skate over the blue lines, Wayne Gretzky always tucked in the right side of his jersey, and just about every player in the playoffs refuses to shave until their season has come to an end.
One of the more widely known superstitions in hockey is that a player NEVER, under ANY circumstances, touches the Stanley Cup until he’s earned the right to by winning it. Expanding on that superstition is the long-held belief that the captain of a team that has earned a berth in the finals never handles the respective conference championship trophy – it’s not THE trophy that they’re after.
So the question now is: did Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby commit hockey sacrilege by carrying off the Prince of Wales trophy after the Penguins dispatched of the Carolina Hurricanes in a four game sweep? Has the young superstar sabotaged his team’s championship dreams, knowing now that Pittsburgh will likely face the very team that defeated them in the finals last year?
Slow down there, Penguins fans. Don’t go running for the hills just yet.
In fact, there have been a few teams whose players have touched the conference championship trophy en route to winning Lord Stanley’s mug. Mark Messier did it with the Rangers in ‘94, and New Jersey’s Scott Stevens did it four times and won the Cup three times, as did Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings. The three are regarded as some of the sport’s greatest leaders.
Stevens certainly thought winning the Prince of Wales trophy was worth celebrating, casually explaining, “It’s a nice trophy.”
In 2008, Crosby simply smiled for the cameras with league deputy commissioner Bill Daly and then let someone else carry the trophy off. Crosby was quick to point out to Versus TV personality Christine Simpson that he avoided the trophy last year, and that maybe switching things up would lead to better luck for his team.
Either way, don’t look to touching the Prince of Wales or Clarence Campbell trophies as an excuse for your team’s success or failure. Focus on the players, not the hardware.
On the other side of the coin, however, there are some who suggest that the Penguins are primed to follow in the path of Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers – Edmonton dropped their first Finals appearance to Mike Bossy’s Islanders, but then knocked off the dynastic New York squad the following year en route to their own period of sovereignty in the NHL, winning five Stanley Cup championships in five seasons. But they are forgetting one thing: unlike last year when Marian Hossa was tearing it up in black and Vegas gold, the Slovak sniper now sports the winged wheel on his chest.
Not to mention the fact that Detroit already boasts a lineup of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Dan Cleary and Johan Franzen. Throw in goalie Chris Osgood and otherworldly defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom into the mix and you have all the makings of the first back-to-back Stanley Cup champion since the Wings did it eleven years ago.
To be fair, however: this Pittsburgh squad is of a different breed than last year. Gone are Hossa, Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Darryl Sydor and Georges Laraque. In their place, G.M. Ray Shero has assembled a squad that mixes youthful exuberance with veteran poise. With the payoff performance that Dan Bylsma's gotten out of Sid the Kid, Marc-Andre Fleury and Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh appears ready to go toe-to-toe with the boys from Motown.
If anyone is going to lead the Penguins back to the promise land, it’sCrosby. He’s already matched his point performance from last year, and still has at least four more games to play. Here’s another statistic you might want to take notice of: through 17 playoff games, Crosby has 14 goals. The record for most goals in the postseason is 19, which is shared by Jari Kurri and Reggie Leach. Once Crosby enters the top ten, he’ll already be in company with the likes of Gretzky, Bossy, and Joe Sakic.
If there was any doubt that Crosby has assumed the throne to the NHL, his play this postseason has silenced the critics.
So does Crosby’s parading with the Prince of Wales trophy sink the Penguins’ season, or is this just a preview of things to come? We won’t know until sometime after June 6 - just who in blazes at the NHL scheduling department came up with that brilliant idea? But hold on to your hats, folks. These Penguins look ready to take flight.
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