This year’s playoffs have already been insane as far as upsets and storylines go. The best regular season team gets swept out of the playoffs in the first round by what was a struggling team that couldn’t seem to find a rhythm. A team that has won 2 out of the last 3 Stanley Cups backed by what many say is the best player in the world swept in the first round of the playoffs. Both First Place seeds knocked out of the first round. INSANITY! CHAOS! That’s what playoff hockey is all about! But with these storylines coming out, I ask the most feared question of all for penguins fans… is it time to trade Sidney Crosby after getting swept in the first round of the playoffs?!

I can remember 2 years ago, after another stinging defeat of the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Washington Capitals, both pens fans and caps fans had started asking the question “is it time to trade Ovechkin?” As if there aren’t 20 other players on his team. As if Ovechkin was out there for every single goal scored against the Capitals in the playoffs. “Ovechkin will never have what it takes to win a cup.” “Ovechkin cares too much about his own stats.” “Ovechkin doesn’t perform in the playoffs.” It was absurd that I was hearing these takes. I wasn’t too worked up over penguins fans and media coming up with these takes, they’ve been saying how “overrated” Ovechkin is his entire career as if he’s not the greatest goal scorer this league has ever seen since Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky (maybe ever after it’s all said and done). But even caps fans started asking me if we should start to rebuild and trade Ovechkin. ARE YOU FUCKIN KIDDING ME???!!! To think that caps fans had started giving up on this guy was breaking my heart. This guy lays it all out there every night for us and has never complained about anything. Just goes out on the ice, entertains the shit out of us, and has the time of his life. I was disgusted by people asking me if we should get rid of him.

To say that this guy doesn’t perform in the playoffs is a filthy lie. The guy has 64 goals in 126 playoff games. Crosby only has 2 more goals in 38 more games played. Ovechkin is 15th all time in Playoff goals per game, Crosby isn’t even top 50. But yet Ovie “doesn’t perform.” This year, Sidney Crosby in 4 games only put up 1 point and was a -4. Yikes. Never in Ovechkin’s career has he put up such bad numbers in the playoffs. And he certainly has never been swept in the first round of the playoffs. So does this make Sydney Crosby a non-playoff performer now? If you all want to hold Ovechkin to that standard, then I guess you’re already given the answer. I don’t see how a player can bounce back from such a bad performance in the playoffs like that, I don’t think it’s ever been done before. Just Brutal. Could this be the beginning of the end for the Pittsburgh Penguins? Is it time to hit the panic button? I guess we’ll find out this summer.