When you're the face of the National Hockey League and a major equipment supplier, part of those duties should include being an ambassador for the game.You make public appearances, shake some hands, pose for pictures and, ultimately, sign some autographs for anyone who asks. Sounds pretty simple, huh? Sorry, folks, it's not.
According to Hound Central 3.0 poll voters, though, someone must have forgotten to send Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby a memo that he is, in fact, that face. Sid the Kid, they said, represents the toughest autograph in the NHL.
Crosby, who got my vote, picked up nine of the total 22 votes cast, overwhelming second-place finisher, New York's Jaromir Jagr (four votes) and Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Washington rookie Nicklas Backstrom, who each picked up three votes.
Talk to any hockey hound, and you'll likely hear a story about huge crowds, missed opportunities or his standoffish attitude. Lately, I've been hearing that he's become somewhat of a ghost -- very few people see him on the road and, if they do, he has his own security.
Is that true? I couldn't tell you. The Penguins haven't come to town yet. When they do, though, on Jan. 10, I'll find out for myself and, no matter what happens, will be happy to share.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that we have two Crosby autographs in our collection. One is on a Team Canada puck, picked up when the Penguins were in Boston and Crosby was headed tp dinner. The other, a true 1/1 personalized to Colin, is on a matte of a framed article I wrote about The Next One a few years back for the Boston (Mass.) Herald.
Here are the results:
Question: Who's the toughest autograph in the NHL?
Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby: 9 out of 22 (40.9 percent)
New York's Jaromir Jagr: 4 out of 22 (18.1 percent)
Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk: 3 out of 22 votes cast (13.6 percent)
Washington's Nicklas Backstrom: 3 out of 22 (13.6 percent)
Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin: 1 out of 22 (4.5 percent)
San Jose's Jonathan Cheechoo: 1 out of 22 (4.5 percent)
Washington's Alex Ovechkin: 1 out of 22 (4.5 percent)
San Jose's Joey Thornton: 0 votes
Tampa Bay's Vinny Lecavalier: 0 votes
2 comments:
Crosby is definitely the toughest. I live in Edmonton, and when the Penguins were in town the other day the hotel had jacked up security and they snuck Crosby out the back exit with at least 5 security guards when he left for practice and the game.
Amazing, isn't it? And this is the face of the NHL and RBK.
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