CBC: Mike Milbury calls out Crosby for role in Penguins-Flyers brawl
Speaking on Sports Radio 94WIP Monday, Milbury ripped Crosby for his role in instigating a game-ending line brawl in Sunday's game between the Penguins and Flyers. The chaotic scene resulted in 52 minutes in penalties being assessed between the two teams.
The fighting was touched off in part by Flyers forward Brayden Schenn's cross-check to Crosby.
"Little goody two shoes [Crosby] goes into the corner and gives a shot to Schenn. Schenn was late to the party, he should have turned around and drilled him right away, but I guess better late than never," said Milbury, who is an analyst on CBC and NBC.
"So you know, Crosby gets cross-checked, big whoop. He said after he came back from his 35th concussion, 'I'm not going to do this anymore, I'm not going to get into this scrums, I'm going to stay away from that stuff.' He couldn't help himself because there's a little punk in Crosby.
Let's get two things out of the way. First of all, making fun of concussions is just stupid. Do remember Chris Pronger. Secondly, Milbury's remark about Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma's "skirt" is stupid and reprehensibly sexist. He deserves to be censured for it, but his employment at CBC is probably secure, given the kind of people they employ on their hockey broadcasts. It's really not too hard to see that Milbury's main motivation in all the nonsense he gets up to is to secure his position as Don Cherry's successor to Crazy Loud-Dressing Shouty Bigot's Corner. He's going to need to amp up the wardrobe, though. Not looking forward to it. Frankly, I shouldn't have called Crosby "Cindy" either; it was stupid and sexist of me and I apologize. It's tough to not lapse into sexist language when talking about sports, especially about the most homophobic and misogynist major team sport of them all. I shall try to do better.
Having said all this, there are two larger points that shouldn't be overlooked. Firstly, as this blog has maintained for years, Sidney Crosby is, on the ice, a disgusting punk. He slashes and cross-checks other players, takes monstrous dives when someone as much as touches him, and cries about it to the media afterward. They, having enshrined him as the Messiah of Hockey, lap it all up. Milbury knows what he's doing when he goes after Crosby; he can only raise this big a shitstorm by attacking the Anointed Next One. So in my opinion, apart from the stupid concussion remark, Milbury is right on the money about Crosby.
Not too long ago, Milbury was still drinking the same Kool-Aid as the rest of the media, because just last year he called Crosby "the perfect face of the league". Either he's come to his senses, or this is just a publicity stunt. Funnily enough, Don Cherry also doesn't have a very high opinion of Crosby. He may be a bigoted nutcase, but at least he's called Crosby out on diving and crying to the refs. The dive Crosby takes on Schenn's cross-check is vintage Sidney.
The second point is that although talking about Bylsma's "skirt" is appalling, the point Milbury is trying to make in his particular knuckledragging caveman idiom is that by the standards of hockey, Bylsma's no innocent. Sending out your fourth-liners to go after Danny Briere like that is asking for a fight, and Bylsma must know it. The Penguins have lost the game, and Bylsma's using his last change to get the fourth-liners out there to injure the Flyers' stars. That's just not cricket, and Bylsma deserves to be called out on it. Philadelphia has completely outplayed Pittsburgh this year, and Bylsma's resorting to dirty tricks to get a leg up in the almost certainly upcoming playoff series.
So on the whole, if Milbury hadn't delivered his message in such a classless, sexist and plain dumb way, I'd completely agree with him. But I suppose he really is gunning for Cherry's job, and so there's really no other way he could have delivered it.
8 comments:
Milbury's a twat and he can get dropped. Remember Al Strachan? Nobody's sorry that he's a memory. They just need a proponent of rough hockey's who's not an asshat.
As for Cherry, despite his right-wing causes, his hero-worship of the military and his (occaisional) neanderthal comments - I still like watching him. He has good wisdom (at least to me) on hockey.
Then again, I'm a Leafs fan so that raises a lot of questions about my judgement and sanity.
Strachan was fired for a copyright violation. If you seriously consider the kind of stuff Cherry constantly gets away with, what Milbury said is nothing. Had he said these things about Ovechkin and the Caps, there wouldn't even have been this much of a fuss. Milbury creates controversy, and controversy sells.
I'm actually not sure he counts as a proponent of "rough hockey" any more. Did you see his altercation with JR? To me, Milbury was saying that forecheckers shouldn't hit the puck carrier. That was the first time I'd actually seen someone say something that can be described as "trying to take hitting out of the game".
As for Cherry... Yeah, he has a Jack Adams Trophy and knows a thing or two about hockey. But ever since the NHL sold their European broadcast rights to some shady holding company in Sweden, we don't get to see the HNIC pre-game or intermission programming. And honestly, the only time I could be bothered to go online to watch Coach's Corner was when he challenged Burke to a fight. The joke's gotten a bit old for me.
I'll write about the Leafs some other day. ;)
Please be gentle, the fragile leafs nation is feeling quite tender right now...
Who am I kidding? We can take it, we've been on the receiving end since the late nineties. But one day (oh glorious day) we shall take the cup. Probably after the world ends and there's no other teams to compete.
As for the fight with JR, no. I could say I'm not so much a hockey fan as a Leafs fan. By that I mean I usually don't watch other teams but try to watch as much Leafs as possible so I miss out on stuff outside of the Leaf-verse. I do like the obstruction free hockey we're playing now (compared to pre-lockout) but not checking the puck-carrier? The hell? You must have the option of a clean hit/check on the carrier, its part of hockey. Did Milbury take a puck to the head?
As for Cherry, he's still... entertaining. I listen to him when he talks about hockey. When he starts into his hero-worshipping spiel I tend to shut him off mentally.
The Milbury-JR thing is here. It's on Nystrom's hit on Kris Letang. Didn't rewatch it, but IIRC Milbury says Nystrom should have tried to play the puck instead of hitting Letang. To me, that's a guideline that really would take a considerable part of the hitting out of the game. It's really confusing, because he's usually on the opposite tack on these things.
Tortorella agrees with you on the Pens and their "two whining stars":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UjHkuBakpw
How can anyone not love Torts? =D If the Caps had a better GM, they'd have Tortorella behind the bench and a Stanley Cup banner hanging from the roof.
Also couldn't help noticing Adam Proteau's column:
" If the Byng is such a terrible comment on the caliber of a player’s game, why don’t we create the anti-Byng award? We could present it to the thinnest-skinned NHLer, the mega-macho hothead who can be thrown completely off his game with a couple whacks across the ankles or a cross-check in the small of the back. That sounds like a player every Stanley Cup contender could use, doesn’t it?"
I know who I'd vote for!
Just watched Coaches Corner, Cherry started with the waving the flag (coming up on the anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge) then he talked about the Crosby stuff. Called him out for his past diving and whining and told him to stop doing stupid stuff and score goals.
Just caught it on YouTube. I don't really mind the flag-waving, as long as it doesn't degenerate into direct racism, but Cherry's notions of military history are about as sensible as his wardrobe. He's dead right about Crosby, though!
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