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Crosby on Philly paper’s ‘Cowardly Penguin’ cover: “That’s one of the nicer things they’ve said about me”

dailynewscrosby

Just in case you haven’t seen the Philadelphia Daily News’ attempt to poke the bear (or lion...or penguin...whatever):

dailynewscrosby

As for ‘Sniveling Sidney’? He took the front page in stride.

“That’s one of the nicer things they’ve said about me here,” Crosby said.

It was a fairly lighthearted response from No. 87 -- but when the conversation turned towards tonight’s elimination contest at the Wells Fargo Center, he got serious.

On the verge of being swept out of the playoffs for the first time in his NHL career, the Penguins captain said it was time to forget about distractions and focus solely on the task at hand.

“I don’t think there’s anything that really needs to be said at this point,” Crosby explained. “All the talking’s been done. Now we have to go out and play.”

Logical approach, but simply “going out and playing” will be tough. The Penguins will be without four regulars -- James Neal, Arron Asham and Craig Adams are suspended, Paul Martin has an undisclosed lower-body injury -- meaning a pair of minor-leaguers (Eric Tangradi, Simon Despres) will be thrown into a hostile playoff environment.

There’s also the not-so-tiny fact that Pittsburgh’s defense has shown all the resistance of a wet paper bag, and the fact 50-goal man Evgeni Malkin has yet to find the back of the net. That, combined with the loss of Neal, could have the Pens struggling to put pucks in the net tonight -- something Crosby’s aware of.

“We’re more than capable of providing offense here in the absence of [Neal] for one game,” he said. “I just want to continue to go to the net. At this time of year, that’s where pucks are going to be.”

More: Here’s CSN Philadelphia’s Lisa Hillary asking Crosby about the Daily News cover.