Dubinsky doubles down on criticism of Sidney Crosby.

Fans who were fortunate enough to watch the career of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby in the National Hockey League, especially those who watched from the very beginning. will be very familiar with the name Brandon Dubinsky. Although Dubinsky himself would never come close to rising to Crosby's own star status, the Columbus Blue Jackets forward made a name for himself in part thanks to his well publicized feud with the top star in the league at the time.

Dubinsky's name has faded from the discourse however in recent years thanks in large part to a wrist injury that has effectively put an end to his career in the NHL, however this week it came roaring back into the headlines when he rekindled his rivalry with Crosby. This time the rivalry was rekindled off the ice with comments made by Dubinsky during The Garage Beers Podcast in which he absolutely roasted Crosby for his antics during the early stages of his career.

"Everybody wants to talk about Sid and Ovi or whatever," began Dubinsky before adding. "F***, Sid. I’ll take Ovi every day of the week."

The comments were heavily publicized and discussed at length on just about every platform that talks about hockey these days and there were no doubt a number of reasons behind that. Crosby's own star power was the primary motivating factor, the fact that he is so well respected and rarely discussed in such a manner was another, and the rivalry between the two during their careers on the ice made this a rather intriguing story. 

As you would expect this led to a ton of backlash towards Dubinsky, but instead of walking back his comments he doubled down on Friday. Dubinsky did acknowledge that Crosby is in fact a great player, even going so far as to say that he was never in the same league as the Penguins captain, but added that his behavior on the ice early in his career has forever tainted the way he views him.

"Listen. Crosby is better then me I never said he wasn’t," wrote Dubinsky. "He’s obviously one of the best ever. It was Ovi vs Sid. None of you played in the NHL and know how hard it is to score goals in the NHL. 724 is insane. Sid just whined way too much and Ovi just shut up and played hard."

That certainly can't be considered an apology, and no doubt will result in more heat coming Dubinsky's way.