There is a… let’s call it a popular chant that happens at New Jersey Devils games after big goals. It’s based on the previous goal song that lent itself to a good ol' fashioned “Rangers Suck” chant. When the Devils moved the goal song to “Howl” by Gaslight Anthem, people wanted to find a way to keep the chant intact.
Eventually, there was another element to the chant that’s not safe for work. It’s definitely not safe for this blog, but it depicted a crude comment about Sidney Crosby. While the chant itself is probably past due to retirement, the part about Crosby is definitely past its prime.
See, most hockey fans don’t hate Sidney Crosby anymore. If you look at polls of the most liked NHL players regardless of local fandom, Crosby is near the top of the list. People love Sidney Crosby and want to appreciate the final years we have with one of the all-time greats.
When did this change? When did the narrative around Crosby go from an injury-prone crybaby who was ruining the game with his complaining to a lockdown Hall of Famer who we wish could have one more run to the Stanley Cup?
Even Devils fans have lost their spark in the Pittsburgh Penguins matchup. Where would the Penguins rank on their list of rivals today? The top rival is clearly the New York Rangers, and then it’s probably the Carolina Hurricanes. After that, it’s some order of the Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals, and Minnesota Wild. The Penguins don’t even track on most Devils fans’ radar.
When analyzing the timeline, it’s clear what happened. Crosby was designated as the “next big thing” when he hadn’t even put on an NHL jersey. People don’t like that. So, the hate started early, and how he treated the league didn’t help. Don’t get us wrong; we couldn’t think of a disrespectful moment, but he did push the limits of manipulating the referees. He tried to get EVERY call. It was an NBA-level of penalty baiting.
Sidney Crosby is no longer the NHL's most hated man
And it reminded fans of another hated athlete: LeBron James. James was another star who was anointed prior to playing a professional game, lived up to every expectation, and did it with many mistakes that weren’t a detriment to the league’s reputation, but did make him easy to hate. Like Crosby, most seem to just enjoy the ride with LeBron today.
When Crosby started winning championships, it was basically a confirmation that his antics were working. All the baiting was causing us to ignore the legend playing in front of us. Add in a Canadian Golden Goal that ruined the Americans’ chance to win our own gold medal, and the hatred went nuclear.
Today, the hatred is essentially gone. The exact moment this happened was probably when the Penguins stopped being contenders. We get bored with hating a player who can’t get out of the first round of the playoffs.
We once rooted for Crosby’s downfall. Now that it has happened, at least from his team’s perspective, we kind of want the old Crosby back. Chants aside, Devils fans don’t treat this like a rivalry because it’s not one. The Penguins haven’t mattered. The Devils have mattered, but they haven’t been competitive. Making this a rivalry that doesn’t have a ton of history would be borderline reaching.
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