Crosby Becomes Motivational Speaker

Following the December 8th loss to the Minnesota Wild, rookie superstar Sidney Crosby decided he could hold it in no longer.

Without the looming presence of Mario the owner, Crosby told the AP writers after the game;

"There's no excuse at all," Crosby said. "It's effort. It's moving your feet, it's making hits. You keep it simple, but when you do you create bounces -- you make your own bounces."

Now, I'd expect a lot of the other bloggers and the media elites, who are already predisposed to hating Crosby hype and all, to jump all over this and proclaim that Crosby is already whining and out of bounds with his comments. At least the AP went out of their way to describe his demeanor.

"I don't know if the effort was there," Crosby said, speaking in a normal voice without anger or disgust. "NHL teams, they've got to find a way to be prepared for an opponent. They've got a good team and a good system over there, but that doesn't make it any better."

You have to look at this in it's proper perspective. It's not just him in the organization that is feeling the miserable season. The Crosby hype machine has nothing to do with this. Mark Recchi offered this stinging reality check, "the low point of my career."

But before you'd think Crosby would hash out a full on attack of negativity, he offered this bright spot of hope in the form of motivational speaking.

"You can't give up," Crosby said. "You've got to keep battling to the end. Winning is a habit. You can't accept losing. Losing is a bad habit to accept."

He's 1000% percent right. To change this franchise into a winning team, they first must abandon any and all negativity and refuse to lose. This is a bright spot for Crosby sans Lemieux. He has decided to step up and become a team leader for this franchise. Maybe then the core veteran leadership of LeClair, Recchi, and Lemieux will be given this as a wake up call.

[Via: Yahoo! Sports]