Forget tradition. Sidney Crosby is ready to create his own legacy for these Pittsburgh Penguins.
Bucking years of superstitious belief, Crosby happily pulled the Prince of Wales Trophy out of the hands of NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and posed for pictures holding the trophy -- even calling alternate captains Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin to join in.
For years, such behavior around the trophy awarded to the Eastern Conference playoff champion was considered taboo. The thinking went something like this: Why celebrate with the conference championship trophy when there is a bigger trophy still up for grabs. The superstitious lot actually believed it was bad luck -- and poor form -- to be caught touching said trophy, and more than one captain in the past decade has gone to great lengths to limit exposure.
Crosby himself avoided the trophy like the plague last spring after his team beat the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. But such restraint and conformity to the old-school way of thinking didn't pay off as the Pens lost to Detroit in a six-game Final.
"We didn't touch the trophy last year, and obviously we didn't have the result we wanted," Crosby said. "We figured we'd touch it this year. Although we haven't accomplished exactly what we want, we still accomplished something here. You know, we can still enjoy it."
Bucking years of superstitious belief, Crosby happily pulled the Prince of Wales Trophy out of the hands of NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and posed for pictures holding the trophy -- even calling alternate captains Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin to join in.
For years, such behavior around the trophy awarded to the Eastern Conference playoff champion was considered taboo. The thinking went something like this: Why celebrate with the conference championship trophy when there is a bigger trophy still up for grabs. The superstitious lot actually believed it was bad luck -- and poor form -- to be caught touching said trophy, and more than one captain in the past decade has gone to great lengths to limit exposure.
Crosby himself avoided the trophy like the plague last spring after his team beat the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. But such restraint and conformity to the old-school way of thinking didn't pay off as the Pens lost to Detroit in a six-game Final.
"We didn't touch the trophy last year, and obviously we didn't have the result we wanted," Crosby said. "We figured we'd touch it this year. Although we haven't accomplished exactly what we want, we still accomplished something here. You know, we can still enjoy it."
(taken from http://penguins.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=423934&page=NewsPage&service=page)
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