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Penguins Captain Responds to Artem Zub's Dirty Slash After Heated Exchange
Artem Zub's slash to Sidney Crosby's hand led to a major scuffle, and now the Penguins captain has responded to the over the top move from the veteran.
The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators in a tight clash on Sunday, and it was one that wasn't without drama, especially in a moment surrounding captain Sidney Crosby and veteran Senators defenseman Artem Zub.
Late in the game, Zub gave Crosby a major slash to the hands for simply getting close to his goaltender, and that led to a fired up 87 that pushed back against Zub in a major way.
When asked after the game about the play, Crosby decided to brush it off and instead talk about the pass he received from Erik Karlsson that led to the overtime winner to give Pittsburgh the 1-0 victory.
«Nah. I had moved on. Just a nice pass from (Erik Karlsson). He put it on a tee.»
However, reporter Josh Yohe of The Athletic wasn't as forgiving as Crosby, noting that an official should be aware of the play from Zub that led to the scuffle and why it was so unnecessary.
«I thought the slash by Zub was way over the top and that the Penguins should have received a power play even though Crosby retaliated. That's a dirty, dangerous slash and it simply wasn't warranted. Crosby barely touched the goaltender's glove on that play, and the tradeoff at that stage of the game is obvious and something a veteran official like Dan O'Rourke needs to be aware of."
At the end of the day though, Crosby showed great leadership to the young players on his roster by quickly moving on from the situation, and instead used this to fuel the motivation in overtime where he would eventually net yet another clutch goal.
In the process, he passed Jaromir Jagr for most points against the Ottawa Senators franchise in NHL history, showing why he's one of the greatest players of all time, and while the Zub play was unnecessary, Crosby showed what a veteran should do to bounce back from such a move.
| POLL | ||
MARS 31 | 177 ANSWERS Penguins Captain Responds to Artem Zub's Dirty Slash After Heated Exchange Was Sidney Crosby's reaction to the slash appropriate? | ||
| Yes | 166 | 93.8 % |
| No | 11 | 6.2 % |
| List of polls | ||