Crosby Snares Olympic Gold for Canada, Making Non-Penguins NHL Fans Shiver

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

With 40 seconds to go in the gold medal hockey game, the wife--born in the frozen northland--starts singing "Ohhh Ca-na-da...."

Well, Zach Parise put an end to that bit of warbling, and Sunday dinner was officially delayed for the overtime. The American kids, it seemed, were on the brink of a mighty upset. But then Sidney "F." Crosby made things right for all the good folks from Moose Jaw to Dalhousie, and ended a splendid Winter Olympics for our good friends and neighbors above the border.

Yes, Canada--not the United States, not Russia, not Germany--ended the Vancouver games with the most gold medals. Couldn't have happened to a better bunch of people.

Except...why Crosby? As all good Washington Capital fans know, he is the second-best player in the National Hockey League, after Alex Ovechkin. Though that's not what the Canadian-born hockey commentators insist on telling us.

For a while, we Caps fans could cling to the hope that Sid the Kid was more Alex Rodriguez than Derek "F." Jeter (as Red Sox Nation knows the Yankee shortstop)--maybe pretty and talented but not so good in the clutch.

Well, the 22-year-old Crosby has now led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup, and Canada to Olympic gold. And, barring a Tiger-like meltdown, it looks like the Caps--and the rest of the league--are going to be watching Sid's highlight reels for many years to come.

So the puck, Alex, is on your stick. In 2014, the Olympics will be hosted by Russia. There you'll have a chance to equal Crosby's feat, and lead Russia to victory on Russian ice. In the meantime, there are the upcoming playoffs. It's pretty clear now that the path to the Cup, for this year and the perceivable future, goes through Pittsburgh.

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