In a revealing interview with a small newspaper in Northern Ontario, Claude Giroux indeed blamed Sidney Crosby for the two wrist injuries he suffered in the 2012 postseason:
“Every time we’d line up against each other for a face-off during our (2012 playoff) series, instead of going for the puck when it was dropped, he’d hack me across the wrists. I ended up playing the series against (New) Jersey with one of them fractured and had to go for surgery on both of them after we were out of the playoffs.”
I’ve spent about a half hour looking through tape of faceoffs between the two players, and well … nothing is really all that conclusive. NBC’s crack broadcast team was too busy promoting the Kentucky Derby or whatever to actually show half of the faceoffs, so we’ll have to just take Giroux’s word for it.
Pens fans like to think it’s “Giroux blaming Crosby for the loss to the Devils,” but I must have missed the part where G said that.
In any event, I’m not sure how this is necessarily news: We all know Crosby, Malkin and Co. are just as dirty as the next guy. Giroux’s the same. As long as we’re not living under the illusion that any of these guys are saints, this isn’t all that shocking.
