Crosby: ‘I was a lot closer than I thought to playing’ in Olympic gold medal game
When news broke Wednesday that Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss at least four weeks, most people probably assumed that he would’ve been nowhere close to playing in the Olympic gold medal game between Canada and the United States.
To hear Crosby tell it, however, it sounds as though he very nearly suited up for Canada in the Olympic men’s hockey final on Sunday.
“I was a lot closer than I thought to playing in the gold medal game,” Crosby told the media in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. “Didn’t think it was necessarily going to be an option. The chance that I had a chance and was close to it – the staff was unbelievable.”
Sidney Crosby is meeting the media today: “I was a lot closer than I thought to playing in the Gold Medal game. Didn’t think it was necessarily going to be an option. The chance that I had a chance and was close to it - the staff was unbelievable”
While it seems pretty hard to reconcile Crosby’s four-week injury timeline with the possibility of him playing in a high-intensity, high-speed game just four days after suffering his injury, it should come as no surprise that the three-time Stanley Cup champion would do anything possible to play for an Olympic gold medal.
Crosby suffered his injury, which has been classified by the Penguins as a lower-body injury, during Canada’s 4-3 quarterfinal overtime win over Czechia on February 18th. Crosby collided with Czechia’s Radko Gudas in the neutral zone, forcing him to collapse awkwardly to the ice and eventually hobble to Canada’s dressing room.
Canada ultimately fell short in Sunday’s gold medal game to United States, losing by a score of 2-1 in an overtime thriller. There’s no doubt Canada missed Crosby, who won Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014. His absence was especially felt during Canada’s 5-on-3 power play opportunity in the second period, on which they failed to capitalize. Crosby’s patience, vision, and passing would’ve been a huge asset for Canada in that situation, and possibly been the difference between winning and losing.