PITTSBURGH – This was more than your customary vanilla pre-series press briefing from Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby.
This morning, hours before the puck would be dropped here for the opener of the Rangers-Penguins Eastern Conference semifinal, No. 87 reacted angrily when asked to respond to innuendo from Tom Renney that Crosby embellishes possible penalties and takes dives.
Thursday, Renney, asked if he were concerned about a potential bias toward Crosby, who has been known to embellish in order to draw penalty calls, said he would speak to the series supervisor of officials about a number of topics.
“I haven’t changed one bit; I never dove and I don’t dive now,” Crosby said today with a flash of anger. “That’s just part of the playoffs; part of gamesmanship.
“If I go down, it’s because I’ve been forced down. I’ll do whatever I can to stay on my feet. I think he (Renney) should be the one worried about diving.”
Renney, who addressed the press an hour after Crosby, was asked for his reaction to the reaction.
“Sidney is a great player and as competitive as they come,” Renney said. “If he takes offense to innuendo, that’s his prerogative.”
Asked whether he, in fact, had implied that Crosby dives, Renney said, “No.”
Crosby also seemed to become exasperated over the repeated questions he was asked about Sean Avery. Indeed, Avery again was a major topic of conversation. No. 16 added nothing to the dialogue, adopting his Silent Sean persona – off the ice, that is – that presumably will last the entirety of the series.
“He’s not going to change what I do,” Crosby said when asked about playing against Avery. “He’s tough to play against, and that’s what he prides himself on, but I think I’ve played against a lot of tough players.
“If he expects to talk, he’ll be the one doing the talking, not me. I don’t think I have to worry about it. If he’s going to do something stupid, it’s up to the refs to penalize it.”
Two minutes for stupidity? My goodness, imagine how many game misconducts for stupidity various NHL coaches might have received over the years under that standard.
Among the first questions posed this morning to Renney was one about Avery’s antics.
“He’s a competitor; I don’t know that I’d use the word, ‘antics,'” the coach said. “Sean is a good hockey player with a good grasp of what the moment requires.
“He will never do anything to put his team behind the 8-ball.”
Pittsburgh head coach Michel Therrien also was quizzed about Avery’s potential impact on the series and his marquee athletes.
“We don’t want any distractions; that’s what he’s looking for,” Therrien said. “There’s a fine line to be aggressive and there’s a fine line to be undisciplined. He’s going to do his things. We can’t lose our focus.
“[But] what goes around comes around, too. If they want to target our best players, we’re ready for this. And I’m sure those type of players are always ready for this.
“In the meantime, we’ll target their best players as well.”
No, the flavor of this pre-series press briefing was not vanilla. Rocky Road was more like it.