Rather than talks about the Islanders specifically today, I figured I’d take the time out to address the actions of Sydney Crosby over the past week.

You see, Crosby for all his talent, obviously has a vision problem. The other night, he thought Boris Valabik’s testicles were a punching bag. If you haven’t seen what happened, check it out here a few times.

Many of you guys know how I feel about fighting in this league. If you don’t, or you’re a first time reader, here it is. I feel that fighting serves a necessary function in the game and even if it didn’t, it’s entertaining and fans that aren’t necessarily interested in the game like to see it, which is good for the league as well. But when two guys are hitting a guy all over his body, that just not cool. That’s something I’d see on TNA Impact or WWE Raw, not in a professional hockey game. The team I cover in the EPHL, the Brooklyn Aces [here's a cheap plug, AcesOverBrooklyn.com] would never do something like that, so why do fans and media alike have to watch this in the best league in the world?

I’ll tell you why.

Sidney Crosby is untouchable and the league doesn’t care that he still has a ton of growing up to do. He was handed poster boy status in this league before his first game and in spite of his jaw-dropping offensive totals, he’s not the cleanest player in the league either. Right now, Crosby is like a young mafioso. He’s got more power than he could ever dream of and has all the right people watching his back. I mean seriously, this is a guy that from day one was living with Mario Lemieux. You can say whatever you want about Wayne Gretzky, but “The Great One” got initiated into the league by Billy Smith’s stick a few times before the Oilers started getting smart to having him protected. The Penguins on the other hand, have Crosby protected better than the pope.

One day though, someone in this league is going to make him pay for the things he’s done on the ice, like this, that are extremely questionable. Hell, in a one on one scrap, Valabik would destroy Crosby; he’s 6′7 240 pounds. But Crosby getting in a one on one scrap with someone legitimate and not named Andrew Ference will never ever happen because it’ll turn into something from the movie “The Warriors” in a heartbeat out there. If Gary Bettman is in the arena, you bet h’d jump out on the ice in defense of Crosby too.

However, that is what may be necessary for the maturation process to truly begin with someone aptly nicknamed “Sid the Kid.”

For the rest of the players in the NHL, a suspension would be mandatory for something like this, but Crosby is like Steven Segal for some reason. No, he’s not fat and doesn’t choke out baby seals on “Family Guy,” he’s just “Above the Law.” Why Bettman can guys get away with things like this and Thomas Pock gets a five game penalty for an elbow that did nothing? Why?

This isn’t even the first time someone has been borderline molested on the ice and nothings happened either. Remember last season when Garnett Exelby tried to castrate Blake Comeau?

If you haven’t seen this either, here it is.

After watching this and knowing that Exelby and Crosby never got suspended for these actions, it’s easy to see that the NHL has a sadomasochistic fetish here. They love seeing players getting hit in the chops. Why else would they let players get away with things like this? Exelby isn’t anywhere on the same level as Crosby and yet he got away with deliberately sphering someone in the nads. Knowing this, it’s fair to say that league probably has burned DVDs of the best chop shots and play them on slow nights or when the Lightning and Islanders are playing against one another.

While I can ultimately live with Exelby’s actions because I know it was out of sheer frustration [anyone remember that game?], Crosby does things like this because he can get away with it. He knows he’s untouchable.

Maybe I have a huge problem with this because of the way I was raised. Where I come from, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, no one is untouchable and the second they think they are, they wake up with a horse’s head in their bed or they get what’s coming to them. It’s a natural thing. Everyone shows respect to one another and if not, you pay the price.

If Crosby isn’t show the light soon, he’s going to have to pay a price he can’t afford.

Posted under 2008-2009, NHL, Random Rant