Crosby’s injury a tough blow for Penguins, but they’re still in good spot for playoffs
The Pittsburgh Penguins might be without their leader for the next little while, but that doesn’t mean they’re in dire straits.
On Wednesday, the team announced that forward Sidney Crosby has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, with the team stating that its captain will be out for the next four weeks.
Crosby was hurt during Canada’s quarterfinal game against Czechia after taking an awkward hit from Czech defender Radko Gudas. The hit knocked Crosby out of the game, with No. 87 sitting out the remainder of the tournament, including Canada’s loss in the gold medal game to the United States.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss how Crosby’s absence might hurt the team now, but they can stay afloat.
Carter Hutton: I think if you’re a Penns fan the best news you can hear is that he didn’t play in that [gold medal] game, because if you’re looking at him being four weeks out in the situation he was in, what kind of condition would he have been to play in that game and what could the outcome have been if things went south? You look at, obviously, a different sport, with Lindsey Vonn dealing with a knee injury, goes out and skis, and you know you’re talking about the rest of your life and him being a Penguin.
So, I think for Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, him being back and healthy and getting to where he needs to be, just pass this along now to the Pens. It’s going to be a next man up situation. You have a little bit of a gap, I guess, you’ve built to be where you’re at in the standings. Now, if a team can pick you up and get some good goaltending, they can kind of bridge this gap until he gets back, he’s healthy. Then you give yourself the best chance come playoff time in a Metro division that is wide open. We’ve talked about it a lot. If you can win one round, man, Carolina doesn’t know how to score too well in the playoffs, so you never know.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…