The Pittsburgh Penguins had a pretty rough Saturday night. Facing the Tampa Bay Lightning on the road, the Penguins lost their focus pretty early and it resulted in a lopsided 7-1 loss.
Speaking of focus and discipline, Sidney Crosby lost his in the opening minute of the first period, picking up a cross-checking penalty just 57 seconds into the game. The Lightning capitalized on the advantage with Nikita Kucherov scoring his ninth goal in his ninth game.
Shortly after leaving the box, Crosby barked at the official and used enough colorful language to earn a return 10-minute trip to the penalty box.
If you think Crosby loves to complain and you wish someone would do something about it, this video is for you.
We can make out a few F bombs for sure, but it’s not totally clear what was the tipping point which earned Crosby the misconduct. He clearly wasn’t happy about his original penalty for cross-checking penalty, but he made matters much worse by bickering about it.
After the game, Crosby continued to complain about the original cross-checking call.
Via the Post-Gazette:
“I thought it was a bad call. It’s early in the game. It happens every game 20 times a game. Guy’s following me back to the bench and saying stuff. I don’t think there’s much need to call that. What can you do?”
Whether he thought the original call was bad or not, picking up a 10-minute conduct didn’t help the Penguins. The Lightning didn’t find any additional offense while Crosby served his time, but the Penguins struggled to get anything going on offense, firing just seven shots in the opening period compared to Tampa Bay’s 13.
The Lightning rolled to a 7-1 victory, delighting non-Penguins fans. Meanwhile, the anti-Crosby crowd will love the fact his complaining was finally addressed.
