Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin is the overriding narrative for the Winter Classic. You just know Doc, J.R., Milbury, and weird old Pierre are going to beat this horse to death. You know HBO is going to dedicate an entire reel of film to it. You know Mike Wise is going to write something as provocative as it is empirically wrong about it. Even Maxim magazine is getting in on the action.
October’s issue — the one with [generic Hollywood ingenue wearing lingerie] on the cover– contains a Q&A with Pittsburgh’s superstar. Guess what they talk about:
Sidney is impressively politic in the piece. Despite being given an easy opening, he declines to critique Ovechkin’s playing style. Crosby even offers praise, albeit terse, for his rival. Sidney’s only bite was to anticipate trash talk from Alex (“I guarantee he will”). The interviewer eggs Crosby on, and Sidney doesn’t react. “I’ll just see him on the ice.” Those are good parting words, even if they’re not ones the media wanted. On the ice is where the Caps and Pens mediated four conflicts last season, and on the ice is where the Caps won all four. So let’s do that again.
Thanks to our hero, Wes Johnson, for the heads up on this.
