Nov.
22Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is known for many things, such as possessing perhaps the most refined 200-foot game of his generation, elite passing skills and a wicked backhand.
A propensity for dropping the gloves, however, not so much.
Yet, the 37-year-old fought 6-foot-1 winger Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets on Friday in the Penguins' 4-1 defeat at PPG Paints Arena, marking Crosby's first regular-season brawl in over five years.
Up and down the Penguins lineup, Crosby's teammates appreciated his attempt to inspire some resilience with the club trailing 3-0 at the time.
"He's one of the greatest players of all-time and he does everything right, on and off the ice," said rookie blueliner Owen Pickering.
"To have him step up and try to get us going was commendable.
It was pretty cool to see." Less than a minute into the third period, Crosby took exception to a check Connor delivered in Winnipeg's zone that knocked him down on the ice.
Crosby proceeded to cross-check the Jets winger on the opposite end and again in the neutral zone before the two dropped the gloves between both clubs' benches.
Connor was assessed a five-minute fighting major along with Crosby, who also took a cross-checking minor, which Michael Bunting served.
"Yeah, I mean, (Crosby) didn't like the hit apparently," Connor told reporters postgame.
"(I) was going to the net, saw a kind of cross-check there.
Was going to regroup and (Crosby) came up to me, a couple of cross-checks.
It just kind of happened.
We're not taking (expletive) from anybody.
So that's kind of where it transpired.
It just kind of escalated." Crosby did not speak with reporters following the game.
Friday's scuffle with Connor marked only Crosby's ninth regular-season fight through 19-plus NHL campaigns, per HockeyFights.com .
While he fought Buffalo Sabres center Peyton Krebs last October during the preseason, his most recent scrap in the regular season was Oct.
5, 2019, against Pierre-Luc Dubois, then of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Prior to that, Crosby fought in February of 2015.
Additionally, per Hockey Reference, Crosby became the first Penguins player aged 37 or older to fight since Brian Boyle on Jan.
23, 2022, against Nathan Beaulieu of the Jets.
"We didn't want to wait until tomorrow to try to respond," said defenseman Matt Grzelcyk.
"We had 20 minutes left.
Whenever you see someone like (Crosby) step in there, it obviously gets the attention of everyone.
I thought he kind of dragged us into the fight there.
We probably shouldn't put him in position to have to do that.
"But he's a great leader and I think he sensed a great time to do that, and guys stepped up after that." Crosby's fight proved insufficient to rally the Penguins from a three-goal third-period hole against the NHL's top team.
It did, however, preface the club's first and only goal of the evening.
Just over five minutes after Crosby and Connor dropped the gloves, Bunting scored his fourth goal of the year, making the score 3-1 with 14 minutes, 11 seconds to play.
Sullivan had praise for what Crosby did.
But unsurprisingly, Sullivan would prefer if instances of Crosby fighting remain a once-every-few-years occurrence.
"Obviously, we don't want our captain and our best player in those altercations," Sullivan said.
"I just think (Crosby) is a competitive guy.
He was just trying to get our team going.
But obviously, we would prefer it be other people, not (Crosby) putting himself in those types of situations." Fight card Here is a look at Sidney Crosby's career fight card, per hockeyfights.com 12/20/07 Andrew Ference, Boston 1/3/09 Brett McLean, Florida 4/5/09 Keith Ballard, Florida 10/31/09 Marek Zidlicky, Minnesota 11/3/10 Matt Niskanen, Dallas 4/15/12 Claude Giroux, Philadelphia-x 2/19/15 Brandon Dubinsky, Columbus 10/5/19 Pierre-Luc Dubois, Columbus 10/6/23 Peyton Krebs, Buffalo-y 11/22/24 Kyle Connor, Winnipeg x-playoffs; y-preseason Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports.
A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate.
He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post.
He can be reached at [email protected] .
(c)2024 The Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) Visit The Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) at www.triblive.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC..
This article has been shared from the original article on dailyitem, here is the link to the original article:
https://www.dailyitem.com/ap/sports/penguins-teammates-commend-sidney-crosby-for-fight-vs-winnipegs-kyle-connor/article_7f4b1ac1-6cc5-5e2c-9286-d26c84c461db.html