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For more than a decade, there has been one player that has garnered relentless hate from Flyers fans far and wide. We hate him because he cries if anyone touches him, we hate him because he tends to get away with things (ask Marc Methot), and mostly we hate him because he’s so damn good. He plays for the cross-state rival Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby owns the face Flyers fans love to hate.

We all get the same rush of adrenaline when we see a replay of Giroux crushing Crosby six seconds into a pivotal 2012 playoff game and scoring 26 seconds later. The crowd was going insane and you could feel the energy, it was beyond electric. It wasn’t just because the Flyers took the lead and it wasn’t just because it was against the Penguins. It was because the Flyers best player stepped into the Penguins best player, laid him out, then scored. It was a completely dominating shift over the NHL’s golden boy and we loved every bit of it.

Fast forward a little over 5 years, and the Penguins are facing the two-time President trophy winning Capitals in the second round of the playoffs. We all watched the replay, the slow-mo, and every angle available of Matt Niskanen’s cross-check to Crosby’s head/neck region that resulted in Sid the kid being diagnosed with another concussion. Crosby was held out of game four and made a seemingly miraculous return for game five, contributing a helper in the losing effort.

Now here is where I may lose some (most) of you.

In game six, Crosby took a brutal head-first spill into the boards and was slow getting up. He finished the shift, and the game, in a losing effort collecting his 9th assist of these playoffs along the way. Watching the replay, you see Crosby’s left leg come in contact with Holtby’s leg pad before his momentum carries him into the boards. Incidental contact that resulted in a scary outcome with the way Crosby’s head was tucked.

Old school hockey dictates you play hurt, new school medicine says you don’t mess with concussions.

The NHL instituted “concussion spotters” in an effort to save players from themselves. These individuals are given the authority to have a player removed from the game and tested for a concussion before being allowed to return to the ice. This is great, except where were they in game six?

As reported by A.J. Perez and Kevin Allen in USA Today “Concussion spotters didn’t have the authority to pull Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby from Game 6 on Monday because his head-first collision with the boards is not a “mechanism of injury” that allows that under their guidelines.” WHAT!? This is absurd! From a neurological stand point, the NHL is dictating that their appointed “concussion spotters” only have the authority to pull a player from the game if the “mechanism of injury” falls under specific guidelines, not just because of a play such as slamming head first into the boards resulted in a violent blow to the head. Besides, this is completely disregarding the fact that Crosby has a history of concussions and sustained one a week ago.

As I write this, I can hear Crosby saying “I don’t like them” over and over in my head. I hear ya buddy, none of us like you either. But to be the best, you want to beat the best. As much disdain as I have for Crosby and the Penguins as a whole, I want him on the ice. To be fair, fans of the sport itself want the best quality hockey possible which Crosby provides, and I think it goes without saying but the NHL wants Crosby out there as well.

I’m a little mad that one of the best players in the NHL was allowed to return so soon from what was deemed a concussion to even play in game five. I’m even more furious that concussion spotters are not given the full authority to pull any player from the game who may have sustained a concussion, regardless of what mechanism of injury could have caused it. But most of all, I’m angry at the Penguins coaching and training staff. Sidney Crosby has given over a decade of top-quality hockey to this team, and he was put in one of the most compromising positions of his entire career by being allowed to continue playing in that game.

Crosby has accomplished pretty much everything there is to accomplish as a hockey player. He has two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe, two Hart Trophies, two Art Ross trophies, two Rocket Richard trophies, and plenty more. Maybe it’s time to see Crosby hang up the skates.

As a Flyers fan, that will be perceived the wrong way. I don’t want Crosby to retire so the Flyers have it easier in the east. I love to hate Crosby. But there comes a time in some player’s career where the risks far outweigh the rewards. We saw it with Keith Primeau and Eric Lindros, two players who fell victim to concussion many times throughout their respective careers. Crosby has the hardware and has been immortalized within the NHL. He could sail off into the sunset without his brain being complete mush. That’s not what I want, and isn’t what any NHL fan should want. As a Flyers fan, you should want him around to watch the Flyers rise in the ranks again and maybe have Giroux relive that infamous play from 2012. The Flyers need Crosby like God needs the Devil.

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