Pens still vague about Crosby's status
Coach says captain will be evaluated before Game 6 at home against Rangers
The Pittsburgh Penguins missed an opportunity to close out the host New York Rangers in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday, and their chances of advancing might be diminished due to an injury to their star centre.
Sidney Crosby took an elbow to the head from Rangers defenceman Jacob Trouba late in the second period, and Crosby never returned to the ice after that shift ended. No penalty was called.
“Sidney Crosby will be evaluated when he goes back to Pittsburgh with us today. His injury is an upper body injury. I'm not going to get into more specifics with that,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Thursday.
After the game, Sullivan said merely that Crosby was being assessed for an upper body injury. Reports indicated a possible head injury. The coach was asked to comment on the play that injured Crosby, and Sullivan replied, “Did you see the hit? You probably have the same opinion I do.”
Trouba will not be disciplined by the league for the hit.
“I tried going stick on puck when he was going to shoot,” Trouba said Thursday. “My stick kind of went in between his legs and hit his thigh and I pushed my arm up ... kind of a fluky play. It wasn't massively hard contact. You don't ever want to see a guy get hurt. I don't know exactly what the injury is, but hopefully he's better soon.”
Trouba scored a goal a few minutes after his hit on Crosby, helping the Rangers win 5-3 to slice their deficit in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven matchup to 3-2. Game 6 is scheduled for Friday in Pittsburgh. Crosby, 34, had two goals and seven assists in the first four games of the series, but he didn't add a point in Game 5.
In the regular season, he had 31 goals and 53 assists in 69 games. The three-time Stanley Cup champion has played all 17 of his NHL seasons in Pittsburgh.
Enough of the pain of the past. That's the attitude the Toronto Maple Leafs carried into Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
A win for the Leafs and it will be the first time since the first round in 2004 against Ottawa that Toronto has eliminated a team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. A loss and it's back to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto for Game 7 on Saturday.
With no wins in their past seven elimination games, the Leafs believe they are overdue.
“The opportunity we have to close things out, we haven't done that,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said after the Thursday morning skate at Amalie Arena. “That has come back to really hurt us.
“You don't get these opportunities every day and being in this position, we're very lucky. The challenges that we face with pressure involved is a real privilege and I think it's a lot of fun.”
If the Leafs had some trepidation with the game looming, it was not evident during the morning skate. A crisp and enthusiastic group worked through its preparation with purpose.
“We're in a good mood,” centre Auston Matthews said. “I think everybody's excited for the opportunity.
“The hardest game to win is the last one, the fourth game. They're going to have their best game. They're going to come out really hard and we have to make sure that we match that and exceed that intensity.”
The battle scars the Lightning has accumulated in winning the Cup in each of the past two seasons has the club at a point where nothing fazes it in the post-season.
Coach Jon Cooper had no concerns in that regard.
“There's no special buttons I need to push to get them to go,” Cooper said. “I can't guarantee we're going to win, but we're definitely going to show up tonight, I'll tell you that.”