CROSBY IS CONCUSSED
Pens star won’t start season
Like his Stanley Cup-winning teammates, Sidney Crosby was looking forward to the Pittsburgh Penguins ceremonial ring dinner Monday night. Then he got his bell rung. And now the start of a season that was filled with such enthusiasm, such anticipation, such promise is in limbo. At least for Sidney Crosby.
“All I can tell you is this: we’re not going to put Sidney Crosby back into the lineup until he’s feeling 100 per cent and not any time before that,” general manager Jim Rutherford told Postmedia Monday night. “We are not going to take any chances.”
Such is the timeline involving concussions. You can’t just say a player will be ready to come back in a few days, a few weeks, a few months. No one knows for certain. Not the doctors. Not the Penguins. Not Rutherford. And not Crosby himself. Not until he feels like himself again.
Crosby has been here before. He missed 101 games in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons from concussion-like symptoms stemming from a hit he absorbed from the Washington Capitals’ David Steckel on Jan. 1, 2011.
The argument could be made the past six months have seen the Penguins captain play the best hockey of his career since he was nailed by Steckel.
Eleven months ago, the common question was what’s wrong with Crosby? Off to a moribund start in 2015-16, there were serious concerns about whether he was on the downside of his career. But a December coaching change with Mike Sullivan replacing Mike Johnston behind the Pittsburgh bench seemed to revive Crosby, who would go on to captain the Penguins to a Stanley Cup title and Team Canada to a World Cup crown, all the while being named MVP of both events.
Crosby, it seemed, was on top of the hockey world.
But fate can be cruel indeed. And sure enough, it struck during practice Friday when Crosby was concussed during just his second on-ice workout since leading Canada to its World Cup crown.
As Rutherford and Sullivan are quick to point out, this no longer is about Team Canada or the Penguins. This is about Crosby returning to lead a normal life, however long that might take.
Crosby said after practice Friday he intended to play in Saturday’s exhibition at PPG Paints Arena. But when he arrived at the rink for the game, he felt off. Having been though this before, he would know when something was amiss.
“He came to the rink and that morning reported to our medical staff that he wasn’t feeling well,” Sullivan told reporters Monday. “We went from there. We took him out of the lineup and (today) he went through a concussion protocol and he was diagnosed with a concussion.
“So our medical staff will take the appropriate measures moving forward.”
As for Crosby, the waiting game continues. He won’t be back on blades until he thinks he is ready to return without any physical risk.
Until then, all anyone can do is hope for a recovery. Any recovery.