Sidney Crosby calls for a major change to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Just about everyone even loosely connected to the hockey world appears to be complaining about the sorry state of the National Hockey League's All-Star weekend, that is everyone except Pittsburgh Penguins star forward Sidney Crosby. It's not that the Penguins captain doesn't have complaints of his own, but rather that, even while at the All-Star Game, Crosby remains 100% focused on the games that actually matter.

Crosby made a bold statement on Friday when he publicly went against the league itself when he called for a major overhaul to the league's current playoff format. Crosby expressed his dislike for the current format that sees teams competing against rivals from their own division in the early stages of the playoff format, stating that he would prefer to see things reverted back to the old model of seeding teams 1 through 8.

Currently teams that are in second and third place in their respective divisions are forced to face one another in the first round of the playoffs, a format that many feel has seen legitimate contenders knocked out too early in recent years. Instead Crosby would like to see those same teams awarded for their performance in the regular season, letting them potentially face weaker opposition, if they've had a strong regular season, in a playoff format that uses 1 through 8 seeding.

The responses to Crosby's comments have been almost exclusively positive which really begs the question of, who is the current playoff format for? Crosby is one of the more powerful voices when it comes to athlete's within the sport of hockey, especially since he so rarely chooses to rock the boat, and it would seem that he has already gained a ton of support behind his idea of a major change to the Stanley Cup playoff format.