Is Sidney Crosby Really ‘The Next One’?

By Jason M. Williams

Now that the Detroit Red Wings have finished off the Chicago Blackhawks in the West, the NHL is looking forward to its iconic figurehead avenging last year’s Stanley Cup Finals loss against the league’s marquee franchise – Sidney Crosby and Co. vs. the Detroit Red Wings, who are now at 1-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals, which game four schedule for Thursday.  This represents the league’s first rematch in 25 years when the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers did battle in consecutive years (1982-83 and 1983-84).

In a storyline that couldn’t have been better scripted in Hollywood, Sid the Kid, nicknamed The Next One as the heir apparent to Wayne Gretzky, has a chance to mirror the historic rise to greatness of his predecessor.

In Gretzky’s fourth NHL season, he led the Edmonton Oilers to the first (of his five) Stanley Cup championships by defeating the league’s most dominant team, the New York Islanders – the team that had won the previous four Stanley Cup championships, and the team that had sent the Oilers home in the Finals the season before.

Now Crosby, also in his fourth NHL season, has the opportunity to bring his first title home to Pittsburgh, against the most dominant team of the past decade, a team with four titles in the past 12 years, and the team that sent Crosby and Friends home in the Finals last season.

The script has already been written by Gretzky – now it’s time for Crosby to follow his lead. Can Crosby and the Pens tie up the series at two games apiece this Thursday night?