Nationalism Takes Back Seat To Team Allegiance For Canadiens Fans

Antipathy for Sidney Crosby by opposing fans is hardly a new phenomenon. Watch any Penguins road game and at some point, regardless of how well Sid is doing, you’re going to hear a “Crosby sucks” chant or simply fans booing any time the star touches the puck. The rationale goes something to the tune of “he’s a diver,” “he’s a cheap shot artist,” or, yes, even still, “he’s overrated.”↵↵No matter whether any of that can be justified, or even if Crosby does something to counter it, that impression isn’t going to change among his detractors anytime soon. But you couldn’t be blamed for thinking Canadian hockey fans might be willing to cut Sid the Kid a break, seeing as how he scored the goal to secure the country a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics just a few short months ago.↵

↵↵Not so much, it appears.↵

↵↵⇥“We love Sidney Crosby, but we prefer Montreal to win, so we showed our colors,” Jean Francois Naud said.↵⇥↵⇥Naud is the owner of the popular pizzeria “Tomato” and he has had Crosby’s jersey on the sidewalk all week long.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“It’s funny to see how people react. Some will jump on it. Some will become kids and have fun like they jump in the water. Some will walk around it,” Naud said.↵⇥

↵↵↵To be fair, some of the passersby are abstaining from stomping the jersey out of respect for their countryman. But can you really blame those who did? International competition is a much different consideration than professional hockey playoffs. You could have certainly found some Penguins fans who were rooting against their team’s biggest star when the United States faced Canada in the gold medal game. Also, stomping a jersey during a playoff series is a relatively innocuous bit of mock-hostility toward a foe.↵

↵↵Certainly no worse than ↵booing the national anthem, anyway.↵

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