Friday, October 31, 2008

Kane > Crosby? Uhh, no

Semin exploded on Puck Daddy:

What's so special about [Crosby]? I don't see anything special there. Yes, he does skate well, has a good head, good pass. But there's nothing else. Even if you compare him to Patrick Kane from Chicago ... [Kane] is a much more interesting player. The way he moves, his deking abilities, his thinking on the ice and his anticipation of the play is so superb.

I think that if you take any player, even if he is "dead wood," and start promoting him, you'll get a star. Especially if he scores 100 points. No one is going to care about anyone else. No one is going to care whether he possesses great skill. Let's say you put someone in front of the net and let him deflect pucks in, and he scored 50 goals; everyone will say "Wow!" and then hand him a $10 million per year contract. That's what they like here.

And as if he couldn't endear himself more to us...

Have you forgiven the United States for stealing Russia's gold medal in the 1980 Olympics?
[Loud laughter] Why would I still be mad at them? Their team is weak now. The Canadians are our main rivals.

I wonder if Semin knows that his wonderboy Pat Kane (who he's seen a grand total of two times in live action) is in fact, American.

As far as the first quote goes, despite playing about the same number of games (224 for Crosby, 201 for Semin) Sid has more than double the points of the Russian player. (307 to 153). We'll leave the impressions to you.

5 comments:

The Peerless said...

So much for the stories of Semin being a shrinking violet, comment-wise.

Anonymous said...

Semin obviously doesn't appreciate the secondary assist.

Hooks Orpik said...

Anon: you are referencing how all three of Ovechkin's assists this season are of the secondary variety, yes?

Or maybe how 4 of Backstrom's 4 assists are secondary, right?

Get bent, suckaaaa

Anonymous said...

C'mon hooks:
Can't stand a gifted player voicing strong opinions that slightly disparage your boy? And he's played against Kane 2 more times than you have so he might actually know a thing or 2 about Kane's hockey sense.
And your comparison of Semin's point total vs Crosby's is irrelevant because Semin wasn't making that comparison.
Pens will struggle making the playoffs this year - the loss of Gooch and Whit and the departure of Malone, Hossa, and Christensen and character guys like Hall and Ruutu hurt more than the Pittsburgh press/bloggers care to admit. I should know, I live in Pittsburgh too.

Hooks Orpik said...

shaggy, I take nothing away from Kane....One of my much more talented (and younger) college teammates got to mess around out on the ice with Kane a little when he was with the US NTDP and he knew even then Kane was a level above the other top kids. But given the choice Kane or Crosby, there's no choice to make.

Aside from the numbers, especially head-to-head matchups against the Caps (and the team's cumulative records), Crosby's performance speaks for itself. Semin doesn't have to be impressed but the Penguins wins 10 out of every 12, well that just fine with me.

P.S -- I agree with you the Pens are missing guys like Malone, Ruutu and Hall...Their replacements like Fedotenko amd Cooke can fill the holes but the turnover seems to be noticable in the early going, as a close observer like yourself has noticed....But Erik Christensen, really? Haha