Boldly claim a goal in the National Hockey League and risk criticism from certain circles.
Same goes for baseball and home runs.
So what did Sidney Crosby think of Jose Bautista’s much-discussed seventh-inning bat flip after the Toronto Blue Jays slugger mashed a series-clinching, three-run missile from home plate all the way out to Nazem Kadri in Game 5?
“You’ve got 50,000 people at home, with a home run like that, that’s just pure emotion,” Crosby told reporters after practice Thursday. “I don’t think he was trying to show anybody up. We’ve all been in different situations. That was pretty exciting. If there was a time for one, that would probably be the one.”
Crosby, of course, would know the feeling. When you score, oh, I dunno, the golden goal on home ice, you’re allowed to chuck your gloves 30 feet in the air and hop up and down. This isn’t a Tuesday night in November in Nashville.
It’s hard to act like you’ve been there before when so few have.
Gotta See It: Crosby talks about the Blue Jays’ win
Crosby, who was locked in to the Jays’ “incredible” final game versus the Texas Rangers, takes no issue with baseball players celebrating each playoff series or divisional victory with such gusto — even though hockey players reserve such displays of bottle-poppin’ jubilation only for the Stanley Cup.
“It’s all based on tradition and what you’re used to, and that’s what we’re used to as hockey players. I don’t have a problem with it. I’m sure it’d be weird for a [baseball] team not to celebrate that,” Crosby said.
“I don’t mind it. It’s gotta be fun for them.”
