Mark Madden's Hot Take: NHL, media minions should be thrilled by Sidney Crosby's all-star participation

Some among the NHL’s media chose to target Sidney Crosby, of all people, during All-Star Week.

Crosby is one of the top five hockey players ever, is having an epic season at 36, is constantly accessible and never has embarrassed himself, his team or his sport. In the midst of a sexual assault scandal involving four NHL players, Crosby gets picked on.

One rube wants Crosby to “follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady” and make the sunset of his career somehow more meaningful by ring-chasing with another team.

That idea, of course, was proposed by a Canadian. The unspoken gist being that Crosby should come to Canada and help bring the Stanley Cup north of the border for the first time since 1993. Canada forgets what the Cup looks like.

Memo to Canada: If it wasn’t for Crosby, you’d have forgotten what Olympic gold looks like, too. Be thankful Crosby still will be playing when NHLers compete at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.

Who else is Canada going to count on, Connor McDavid? What did McJesus ever win? He’s all MVPs and statistics, no championships.

If Crosby wants to leave Pittsburgh to go to a better team at some point, fine. No hard feelings.

But that’s his call.

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Crosby shouldn’t feel compelled to provide hockey with a storyline, or that he needs to burnish his already incredible career.

The latter isn’t necessary. His Cups, gold medals, stats and video already make him better than anybody besides Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. (Crosby might be gaining ground on them.)

Crosby also caught flak for skipping the first day of the NHL’s All-Star silliness at Toronto.

That was Thursday, when teams were drafted for the three-on-three tournament. Crosby instead skated on an outdoor rink in Montana and was surely much happier.

The NHL’s All-Star stupidity benefits nobody but the host city.

The skills competition is farcical. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov got booed for giving one drill the appropriate effort. Which is to say, barely any.

It’s all showbiz, except hockey doesn’t know how to do showbiz and invariably comes off as dorky.

Look at the “celebrity captains” for the three-on-three teams. Half aren’t really celebrities. “Canadian celebrity” is an oxymoron. I needed Google to find out who Tate McRae is.

Props to Will Arnett, though. Lou Redwood should have done color commentary for the three-on-three tournament.

The NHL and its media minions should be glad Crosby showed up in Toronto at all. It’s a waste of time. Putting the players on a polygraph would confirm. The NHL schedule is packed. They would rather have days off. (Maybe in Montana.)

McDavid got $1 million for winning the skills competition. Maybe he can buy a Stanley Cup ring.

Nobody’s done more for hockey in the past 20 years than Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, who wisely avoided a trip to Toronto by scoring just nine goals in 44 games.

Crosby shouldn’t be above criticism. But he shouldn’t be subject to the picayune and petty.