Sidney Crosby, the stealth ball hockey goalie

Yes, it’s negative news almost everywhere with the NHL’s lockout, a deepening malaise during this holiday season:

Preemptive legal strikes by the league, possible dissolution of the players association, and an eye-opening read in Tuesday’s Globe and Mail by Roy MacGregor, detailing the “quite alarming” damage done to the league’s brand. An executive from a branding company told MacGregor that the results were the worst it had seen since polling done regarding BP during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It’s little wonder there was a website selling T-shirts depicting NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as the “Grinch” stealing hockey.

Incredibly, there was one ray of light forcing its way out the darkness. At least something to smile about between reading Twitter feeds, searching for Dustin Brown playing highlights in Switzerland or Anze Kopitar surviving the deep chill of Sweden.

It was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette confirming reports that Sidney Crosby played goalie in a ball hockey game in a Pittsburgh rec league on Friday. The kid was flawless in the 4-0 win, by the way.

Crosby told the newspaper that it was “cool.” The other team apparently did not know it was Crosby tending goal because of his equipment.

Who was that masked man?

That was the cool part of it. Crosby did his thing and moved on ... almost mysteriously.

The other cool thing was that Crosby’s quote about his temporary teammates was vintage Sid.

“I didn’t have one shot,” he said. “My team was really good defensively.”

Crosby could have been talking about a Penguin-Islander game.

Oh well.

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