It was clear just by looking at Sidney Crosby following the Bruins’ four-game sweep of his Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals that the superstar took it real hard.
Crosby stood in front of his locker at TD Garden in the moments after his season ended answering questions but with a distant gaze in his eyes, almost like he was replaying every missed opportunity in his head over and over again.
That feeling, the feeling of a missed chance and utter disappointment, didn’t leave Crosby quickly. He and the Pens were left to sit and wonder “What if?” as the Bruins eventually fell in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final.
The pain was apparently too much to bear for Crosby, at least for much of the Cup Final, as he didn’t tune in until Chicago had its chance to hoist the Cup.
“It stung,” Crosby told ESPN.com Thursday. “It was one of those ones that definitely took a while to wear off. Looking back, probably right until Chicago won, it was pretty tough to go a day without it crossing your mind when you’re seeing the finals going on. I didn’t watch a game until Game 6.
“I tried not to think about it too much, but it did pass through my mind. I think until I started working out and started getting ready for this year, it was tough to turn the page there.”
Crosby may have irked some Bruins fans during the conference finals not necessarily for his play on the ice, but rather what he said off of it. He was slow to give the B’s much credit, as Boston held the Penguins to just two goals in four games, but Crosby eventually came around. He credited the Bruins after the series, and he’s still doing so now.
“Ultimately in the playoffs, we didn’t get those big plays against Boston, and they did a better job of that,” Crosby told ESPN.com. “I look at myself in the mirror for that, having those opportunities and having [Tuukka] Rask make those big saves, you want those chances aback and you want to put them in. But you have to make sure you learn from it.”
