The Columbus Blue Jackets’ Brandon Dubinsky is effectively retired due to a chronic wrist injury, but the two-way forward is making headlines for a podcast interview he recently conducted with The Garage Beers Podcast.
“Everybody wants to talk about Sid and Ovi or whatever,” Dubinsky said. “F*&k, Sid. I’ll take Ovi every day of the week.”
Dubinsky then doubled down on the comments on Twitter on Friday.
The Crosby vs Ovechkin comment happened up after Dubinsky was asked by the podcasters about how he once goaded Sid into a fight. Dubinsky is the only player in NHL history to fight both Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
Here’s Dubinsky’s comments in full context:
Brandon Dubinsky: I think the whole pest role, or whatever you want to call it, started way back in juniors. That was just me feeling like I was underappreciated or under-respected in the league. I think I’m actually f*cking better than you guys. I don’t know if you guys all feel that way, if you don’t, I’m going to let you know about it.
It started back then and I carried it into the NHL. It just felt like a part of my game that I needed to have. I was never a guy that could go out there and score 30, 40, 50 goals. I was never going to be a guy that was going to score 70, 80, 90, or 100 points. But I felt like if I brought enough to the table, I would build a pretty special career for myself and obviously be paid for it. At the end of the day, I wanted to make money.
Whatever I can bring to the table that I can control, whether if it was getting under Crosby’s skin or getting under any of the other top players’ skins, chipping in, blocking shots on the penalty kill, winning face-offs, scoring big goals, whatever it was, that’s what I was all about. I knew that I didn’t have one skillset that was so superior to anybody else like some of these guys. Ovechkin’s the greatest goal-scorer of all time. I’m not saying he doesn’t have other things that makes him a special Hall of Fame or a once-a-generation player but he’s just a goal scorer. There are other guys who are just passers. There are guys who fall into these roles, offensive or defensive, whatever it is. I just wanted to have all these different tools. One of the tools I had was play against top players. Those guys wanted to go out on the ice, throw sauce around, not get hit, try to score, and put on a pedestal and respected everything else. I was like listen guys, you’re on the same ice as everybody else. I’m going to slash you in the back of the legs, I’m going to cup check you. I’m going to talk shit to you. I’m not going to cross the line. I’m not going to say anything that I shouldn’t be saying that I wouldn’t want my mom to hear.
It seemed like when you played you were always getting after it with Ovi.
Brandon Dubinsky: We met off the ice a few times. Hung out a few times. He’s one of the greatest of all time because he does everything good. I hung out with him a few times off the ice. He was a great guy, but he always played the right way. He would look to hit me as much as I would look to hit him. For me, there’s no better way to do things than to get this guy off the ice or get this guy worried about trying to hit me because I’m going to try and rock him. We had that sort of thing going.
If I could keep his mind off shooting the puck, I felt like that was a win. At the end of the day, listen, I had the most respect for that guy. Everybody wants to talk about Sid and Ovi or whatever, Fuck Sid. I’ll take Ovi every day of the week.
I got an Ovi stick. I asked Ovi for an autographed stick. I got it from him. Thanked him for it. I would never ask Sid for a stick. Ever.
On Friday, Dubinsky took to Twitter after his comments began being widely circulated. Dubinsky called Crosby “obviously one of the best ever” but included the caveat that “Sid just whined way too much.” He added that Ovechkin’s 724 goals are “insane”, but he preferred Ovi more because the Capitals’ captain “just shut up and played hard.”
Listen. Crosby is better then me I never said he wasn’t. He’s obviously one of the best ever. It was @ovi8 vs Sid. None of you played in the NHL and know how hard it is to score goals in the NHL. 724 is insane. Sid just whined way too much and Ovi just shut up and played hard. pic.twitter.com/rI2aSriYvY
— Brandon Dubinsky (@BDubi17) April 2, 2021
Headline photo: @BDubi17/Twitter screenshot
