Quote Originally Posted by BPTactical View Post
4 people here cannot skate.........

One of the biggest changes to hockey is technology. Skates stay stiff through the entire game, pads don't absorb water, are lighter to start with(lift a pair of old brown Cooper GP58 goal pads compared to a pair of modern Vaughn or Brians pads).
Sticks are lighter and have more "whip", resuming in more accurate, harder shots.
It all adds up.
And Crosby is a bitch compared to Gretzky, Hull, Clarke, Esposito etc.

Ronin hit on something earlier. Basketball players break a finger or get a hangnail they are on the IR for 4-6 weeks. Hockey players have been known to play with broken wrists, ankles, shattered jaws etc.
And enjoy it.
Now here is the real key:
Hockey is still a gentlemans game. You have ettiquite on the ice and as a general rule hockey players are gentlemen off ice. Aside from a very few notable exceptions when was the last time a hockey player got jammed up about a pound of weed in the car, an illegal weapon possession, complicity in a homicide, domestic violence or the like?
Daily occurance for NBA and NFL players it seems.
Crosby is a bitch compared to every player ever to play the game... Even Sear Avery isn't as much of a bitch as Crosby.

Well... Nah. It's close, but no. Crosby is the bigger bitch.