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Sidney Crosby sent us this letter to Gary Bettman today…
If you can’t read the graphic above, here is the text:
Gary,
Hi. Sidney here. I just want to compliment on the wonderful job you’ve done with the game; especially in this years playoffs. Although I hear rumblings of a bias towards our team thus far it is under the table. Lets hope it stays like that. If the media ever knew the refs were on the hook to get us to the finals and win in 7 it would be both our careers
I tried to talk to the guys in the room about Game 5 as we got a little carried away. With some of the cheap shots we gave the refs had to call them. We will be much better in game 6. Are the refs ready? We’re supposed to get a couple power plays in the beginning of the game so we can get a lead right? Hey, how did you like that dive I took? That sure was a beauty, eh?
OK, Gary. Well I know you are busy. As long as the refs are on board we will win game 6 and force a game 7.
Are you coming over for dinner after the finals? I reserved us a cozy little cottage with candlelight and no one will know us. I can’t wait. I have the eatable undies that you like.
Love you Gary.
Sidney Crosby
PS - Malkin says hi. Hey I was wondering if you would mind if he joined us?
The media might not know of a bias towards the Penguins. However, what the media does know is that Sidney Crosby’s bum buddy Gary Bettman made an ass out of himself earlier today at the bankruptecy court hearings in Arizona. When Bettman gets fired or is forced to resign after the bankruptecy court judge rules against the league, then Sidney could spend all his time with him.
Wonderful job your boyfriend Gary is doing with the game eh Sidney? Millions of hockey fans would vehemently disagree with you on that statement pussy…
Mr. Gary Bettman,
Hi, Don Waddell here. First of all I want to say that you absolutely are one of the best professional sports commissioners of all time. The fact that you cater towards the teams that cannot generate revenue on their own and the fact that you are able to steal revenue from teams like Toronto, Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Boston in order to support teams like Atlanta, Anaheim, Florida, and Nashville goes to show how much respect you have for everyone.
But I do have one request. We haven’t been able to field even a competitive team with the salary cap and revenue sharing. That is why I propose that you contract the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators. Doing so will lower the league’s revenues, meaning a lower salary cap and therefore, we have a better chance to be on a level playing field (since we can’t even afford to meet the player payroll salary floor with our gate receipts and tne revenue sharing receipts).
Anyways, I know you are busy with the Stanley Cup Finals and the ongoing saga of the Phoenix Coyotes (I think they should stay in that hockey hotbed of Arizona by the way). But if you can get back to me on that contraction request that would be appreicated by me and the Atlanta Thrashers family.
Say, let’s do dinner. I’ll invite your good friends, Nashville Predators’ minority owner William “Boots” DelBaggio and Anaheim Ducks’ owner Henry Samueli along too. We can definitely sit down and discuss some new ways on how we can share more revenue with the Canadian and Northern-U.S. franchises.
Take care
Your friend, Atlanta Thrashers’ GM Don Waddell
P.S. If you can contract the Calgary Flames also, that would great!
I’ve been a fan of the Red Wings, but also of hockey in general, for about 15 years, I’m looking forward to a Wings victory in game 7 of course, but some dark part of me wants the Penguins to win it just so this double-talking f#^ker realizes his wet dream of handing his baby-boy Crosby the cup so we can finally get it over with. It couldn’t be more transparent how the league caters to the Pens in multiple ways, from the unreasonable, disproportionnate amount of exposure the Pens/Crosby get, to the tainted and dishonest refereeing in their favor. They’re just making shit up as they go along nowa: rescinding Malkin’s penalty was particularly blatant. Also, in the 120 minutes of hockey the Pens have played while facing elimination, they have received only 2 minorpenalties even though they’ve commited innumerable flagrant infractions; that’s of course because no ref in the world would have the balls to call a penalty that might sink the team on which the NHL has put all its resources.
As a sidenote, funny how Bettman got caught on TV as his team was getting hammered 5-0 during game 5. The look on his face at that time tells me all I need to know. I just hope for him that he doesn’t cream his pants as he hands Crosby the cup on Friday at the end of a very unfairly called game. He’s been embarassed enough already.
Wow there are some blinded by love Red Wings fan in tha place! ;P
I have seen many cheapshots by Red Wings too that didn’t get penalties.
But of course I’m on either side in this, which probably changes how I see the game.
There are strange referees decisions each year. Remember that Sakic goal against New York 15 years ago?
As far as I know, Wings are winning the Cup quite often these years. Why are you complaining? ;P Of course Bettman loves Sid, he is the new “face” of the game. He’s selling tickets and shirts. He’s a good player, I don’t get all the hate towards him. Its like its now cool to hate him.?
Game 6 and game 7 certainly seemed preplanned for a penguins victory. It’s pretty easy to see that in a faultering economy what better way to put Gary’s best foot forward then having his team and the new face of the nhl win the cup. Is Gary Bettman’s former name Don King? Pretty transparent, the pens don’t have a team to compete with any team in the west. Fuckin joke.
Nordiques4forever-
I am so fucking sick of people rationalizing things by saying “what’re you complaining about? You’re team wins all the time!!” MAY THE BEST FUCKING TEAM WIN!!!!!! EVEN IF THEY WIN 20 CONSECUTIVE CUPS, WHATEVER!!!!!!!
It’s this type of rationalizing that leads to crosbitism!!
Gotta agree with Hockeyfan on Bettman’s game 5 complete & utter look of disgust - said it ALL. Now we all know everyone has “their team”, but I just hafta think, as league commissioner, the little weasel should, at the very least, make even a half-hearted attempt to feign SOME kind of impartiality. Oh crap, listen to me wishing for a commish that conducts himself respectfully & responsibly in the best interests of the game - talk about yer wet dreams!
Hey there,The next time anybody wants to refer to Sidney Crosby as a pussy or whatever you would like to call him PLEASE make sure you say his complete name STANLEY CUP CHAMPION SIDNEY CROSBY. Thanks, now continue arguing about ref’s and the commissioner.
I Hate the penguins and Crosby He has to be the biggest suck in the N.H.L. Every time someone brushes him he runs crying to the refs.
Sure would like to see someone put him through the boards. The refs must have been paid by the Pens cause only Malkin on the team plays. The goaltender is a 2nd string goalie and the rest of the team seems to be a littie short on talent. Good that they have Bettman behind them he must own half the team. Oh well maybe a good thing they won this year because it will be a long time coming again.
Gary
Hey guys, thanks for all of your support and bringing to light the league wide conspiracy that caused us to get beat by those Pens. You guys are right, it was Gary Bettman and those refs, who should have called more than those 17 penalties on the Pens (we won’t count those garbage time ones in game 5, which would make 23!). Those refs should have known that 17 wasn’t enough, even though they only called 14 on us, 3 less than what was called on the Pens.
It was definitely this conspiracy of the refs giving us more power plays than Pittsburgh, and not us being banged up, choking on home ice in game 7, out of gas and out-Red Winged by a gritty young team with a hot goalie! Or those two even strength goals scored by third line grinder/clutch performer Max Talbot (Hey, wasn’t that my old job?).
I’d love to write more but I have to go and complain some more about Crosby not rushing to us and bowing once again before the great Wings to shake our champion’s hands while we scurried off of the ice after the game to sulk. This is because complaining and being a sore loser is what “real” winners do, and I’m a “real” winner. Just like complaining about the best player in the league (Crosby) and calling him a crybaby is cool and makes you super-awesome, you know? I’ll talk to you guys later. Keep the faith. With more complaining, who knows what we can accomplish next year.
Have to love the Pens haters. Are any of you lunkheads even remotely aware of the fact that in the final, the Pens were whistled for 95 minutes in penalties, and the Wings for just 47 minutes?
But wait! I’m sure some of you idiots will say, “But the Pens had 48 minutes of penalties in game 5…take all those minutes out and they probably had fewer minutes called against them than the Wings did”. Well, you’d be wrong if you feel that way as well. Take the 48 minutes of Pens’ penalties out as well as the 14 minutes of Wings’ penalties from game 5 out as well and you still have the Pens being whistled for 47 minutes of penalties in the Cup finals…the Wings with just 33 minutes of penalties.
Thus, you still have the Wings with 14 minutes of man advantage time…which they could do nothing with! How do you explain that? I guess it could not be the Pens just stopped them…must just be a case of bad Wings luck!
All you losers are left with is to create an alternate reality for yourselves and find some way to hand the Cup to your beloved Wings. Good luck with that you sad sacks. But please remember to factor in the clutching and obstruction of the Wings into your delusions. Anytime any Wings was beaten throughout the playoffs….whether wide or down the middle…they would grab at the player who had the audacity to go by them. Either by grabbing jersey, some part of the body, or the stick…and it was never called. However, I’m sure that will not factor into your delusions in making your beloved original six Wings Stanley Cup champions for 2009!
Happy dreams!!!!!!!!!
Syd the kid is Canadian but being Canadian myself I hate to admit that he is. That really showed his true coplors when he hid after the cup game so he wouldnt have to shake hands. Shows what he is really like. If I never saw another N.H.L. game it would be too soon if Crosby was in it, Gary
P.S. Just what beside screw the N.H.L. has Bettman ever done to help the league? Gary
Here’s the problem. Bettman has made the stanley cup, one time the most prized trophy in sports, a popularity contest. I’m not going to say one thing about the officiating, but here’s the tilt regardless. Game 1 was moved up 6 days, even though a player up for four trophies, Pavel Datsyuk, sat with a minor injury and would have been ready for game 1 otherwise. Two, arguably the best defensman ever had to have surgery on his testicles. Sure, it didn’t keep him out, but he was not 100%, a few days off sure would have helped. For the first time in history a team won a 7 games series in 5 games and had only 2 days of rest. For the first time in 50 years there were back to back games in the Stanley cup finals. Between the 2 series, the Red Wings were forced to play 5 games in 8 days, a feat most teams don’t have to put up with in the regular season, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals. The NHL joins the ranks of the NBA and WWE as a popularity contest. A beauty pagent more than a sporting event. It’s sad, and hockey will suffer for it.
I love how Buttman and his boys, paint Crosby as the poster child of the NHL and most of the media states that Crosby is the best in the league. If that is so, how many awards did he win last week? The same that he was nominated for. Zero, zilch, none. He is garbage and not that best. At best he is a good one-way player. AO would shred Crosby in half if they played one-on-one.
For you Penguin fans, when you get 11 Cups, then come talk.
Back to back Game 1 and 2? The day off is for the PLAYERS to rest. Bettman FUCK sold the NHL for tv rights.
You guys are on crack. As much as i dislike what Bettman is trying to do with the NHL, I find it hard to side with you guys on this one. The better team won the cup.
I have heard it said that if you have to rely on the refs to win a game, then you don’t deserve to win.
It can’t be just Wings’ fans that are tired of hearing about “poster child” Crosby? No doubt, he’s talented (that does NOT make him the best). No doubt, the Pens played a better game 7. If we’re going to pick a poster child, how about one with some class? OR, highlight some TEAM effort in this TEAM sport known as hockey.
I can’t hate on the Pens–I’m glad the rest of their lineup finally got a little recognition (kudos to Max Talbot for being the only goal-scorer in game 7). And yes, the calls (or lack of) were terrible BOTH ways, and we all know who we can thank for that.
But so what if the Wings have won a lot of cups lately? Does anyone else dare recall the “Dead Wing” days. If it’s your team, can you honestly say you want them to lose because they have “too many” championships in the last few years? Every team wants to win the cup. Every year. Period.
Would the NHL have moved the Finals up one week if Crosby, Malkin, and Stall had been injured?
Nope… Those games are setup ahead of time. The ONLY thing that would cause the games to be moved would be a major emergency. If those players were all injured in a plane or bus crash, that might make a difference.
Rob
The reason Bettman loves Sid is that compared to us, the other 29 teams in the NHL are crap. We will win Stanley Cups every year until Sid retires as a Penguin, and Bettman will be NHL Commissioner for Life. And to those Philadelphia Cryer fans, you and Mayor Nutter can all suck it. Bettman made us boss, and Philadelphia is a horrible town. Read the Pensblog on Bloguin, and see why we hate Philly and why we hate the rest of the NHL.
Sidney the kid has to be one of the biggest suckholes in the N.H.L. Every-one has se4en him go crying to the refs if someone skates too close to him or hits him. If he thinks its going to hurt his face somehow I wouldnt woprry about it some one already did the job. Sa a proud Canadian I hate to admit that he.s a Canadian He really sucks.Bettman has no clue how to run the N.H.L. he,s making teams from the north of the states and Canada support the southern teams who should NEVER have been let into the league in the first place. They just dont have the support they need but Bettman keeps hoping. Maybe some day the league owners will see what he,s doing to them At least I hope so Thank you Gary
The team that won the Cup last year was the team that played like they wanted it more. With that said, changing the schedule and moving the games up with high-profile injuries to the Wings was ridiculous. I can’t comment too much on officiating, as it’s practically a joke now in the NHL, but how about six men on the ice for approximately one minute. No call? How the hell is that not called? Usually 6 men on the ice is called when a player is 3 feet away from the bench.
It’s getting harder to watch the NHL every year. The officiating gets worse and the replays and calls from Toronto are not utilized properly, rendering them both pointless.
FIRE BETTMAN!
Please send the refs and thier little buddy linesmen to some sort of school that will teach them how to officiate. I have never seen so many uncalls offsides and head shots in my many years of watching hockey. I think all headshots should be reviewed and if it was deliberate the one who did it should be BANNED for life, they are certainly shortening the others players hockey carrier maybe no right away but it will happen Thanks Gary
Sydney Crosby is a cry baby
And Bettman gives orders to the referee,s superviser to favor Crosby
It is run by americans now…and why did they moove the office from Montreal to Toronto…
100 years anniversay for the Montreal canadians but is Bettman aware of that….
What a shame…let us have another commisioner
Hi All:
Why was Crosby not penalized for breaking his stick and throwing it down ice on the rink ???? Just goes to show Bettman is really looking after his little suckhole. I do think I saw a tear in his eye last night tho. Hope he cries himself to sleep when this is all overOr maybe Bettman will just lose intrest in him he,s getting a little older now. GOODLUCK MONTREAL GO FOR IT ALL and I,m not a Montreal fan lol.
Gary
Gary Oldfield,
I don’t know why Crosby wasn’t penalized for breaking his stick and throwing it down the ice. The referees last night called a penalty 10 seconds into the game on the little crybaby for boarding. It’s quite possible that the referees, linesman, supervisors of officiating are finally sick and tired of Crosby’s antics as well as the bull shit Gary Bettman has pulled over the last 16 years. Crosby has the next three and a half months to cry himself to sleep until training camp begins for next season.
Congratulations to Les Canadiens de Montreal! BRING THE STANLEY CUP BACK TO CANADA WHERE IT BELONGS
Sens Fan
Thanks for your reply to my Message I see others are sick of Crosby,s antics too. Thanks. I guess he and Bettman both had real crying fits last night but they deserve it HOCKEY is a Canadian game.
Gary
Gary,
The more I think about it, maybe Crosby and Bettman both had real crying fits last night. Both of them reap what they sow. Hopefully Bettman contract doesn’t get renewed and they hire a new commissioner who comes from Canada. Whenever Crosby pulls his acts of: crying to the officials, cross checking players after the horn, diving, etc. the new commissioner decides to suspend and heavily fine the crybaby for whatever bull shit he pulls on the ice. HOCKEY is most definitely a Canadian game.
You are welcome for the reply to your message. Keep the posts coming!
Sens Fan
Sorry, I had meant to write “Bettman’s contract doesn’t get renewed” Not “Bettman contract doesn’t get renewed”