Sidney Crosby has essentially done it all in his NHL career, but he did experience a first in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.
With 10:14 remaining in the third period, Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson cross-checked Crosby in front of the Los Angeles net. Anderson was whistled for the penalty, but that didn’t prevent the situation from escalating.
As Anderson was going to the penalty box, he and Crosby were chirping back and forth. That’s when both players were whistled for 10-minute misconducts. As Anderson was leaving the ice to serve his 10-minute penalty, Crosby kept jawing at the officials, and that earned him a game misconduct.
For the first time in his career, Crosby was ejected from the game, much to the delight of the Crypto.com Arena crowd.
Between the 10-minute misconduct and the game misconduct, Crosby finished the night with a whopping 20 penalty minutes. Speaking to reporters after the game, Crosby said he was in complete disbelief after getting told he was kicked out.
“I could tell (Anderson) was saying something,” Crosby said. “I didn’t know what he was saying. We were pretty far from each other. So I got closer. I mean, that happens pretty often. Lotta scrums that happens. Honestly, I was shocked that I was getting kicked out of the game. I had no idea.”
Crosby also said he would have to keep his true thoughts about the officiating to himself.
“Can I really say what I think anyway?” Crosby said. “Let’s be honest here.”
If there was any silver lining for Crosby, it was that he got to hit the showers early instead of having to play out the rest of a lopsided loss.
