Fans demand Crosby be stripped of his captaincy after loss to Canadiens!

Almost no one could have predicted that the underdogs Montreal Canadiens would beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the qualifying round, but the Habs came out on top and will face the Philadelphia Flyers in tonight’s first game of the first round series. 

Pens general manager Jim Rutherford sent his message out to his team on Tuesday when he met with media, revealing changes were needed for Pittsburgh to remain in win-now mode. 

While Rutherford admitted he will need to choose between goalies Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry, he still refuses to touch his core players, which includes captain Sidney Crosby, forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang. The GM believes there is still lots of hockey left in them, though some fans have taken out their anger on Crosby. 

It started when one particular fan demanded that Crosby be stripped of his captaincy in Pittsburgh. 

Sure, the return wasn’t easy for Sid. He missed about half of training camp with an ailment the club has not disclosed publicly. But Crosby still was the Penguins’ best player by far in the series, tallying two of the seven goals himself and adding an assist on the third.

That’s why some insiders believed the comments on Crosby were getting out of hand and attempted to calm the situation down with the angered fans. Team insider Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune Live even made a joke to relax the atmosphere. 

We will never know if Crosby was really 100% during the series against the Habs. He is the only one who knows the answer and knowing his work ethic, he will probably find a way to evolve his game and remain one of the elite players in the league as long as he’s on the ice.

We get that Penguins fans can be angry with their team’s short run, but don’t blame Sid who did most of the hard work.