2025-2026 NHL Offseason

EZ1221C wrote:

Don't look now, but the Pens have now won 5 in a row. Malkin is playing MVP caliber hockey with a huge goal tonight and a shootout goal to boot. Go Pens

Malkin on my fantasy team is making me really appreciate him, I forgot how big of a player he is, he really skates well too

bunch of fools have tried to take him from me in trades, he is off the table

Crosby's diagnosis produces more questions

OTTAWA — Before Saturday night, Sidney Crosby's career was spinning silently, a cloud of uncertainty. Saturday night, the cloud only deepened.

An abnormality in Crosby’s C1 and C2 vertebrae was detected this week, and the injury went unnoticed until he sought second opinions from doctors in Utah and California. The injury is apparently healed, though an independent evaluation will be done in the coming days. And it may have opened a rift in the relationship between the Pittsburgh Penguins and their franchise player.

Bob McCown, of Toronto radio station Sportsnet 590 The Fan, first reported the diagnosis, and added that it was said Crosby was not happy with Penguins doctors for missing the injury.

Crosby’s agent, Pat Brisson, said the injuries were possible fractures, and when asked directly whether Crosby or Brisson were dissatisfied with the care provided by Penguins doctors, Brisson said “I can’t really comment on that.”

When asked about the report that Crosby was upset, Brisson said, “I haven’t heard that from Sidney.”

If there is a division between the Crosby camp and the Penguins over this, Brisson declined to dispel the notion.

After the board of governors’ meeting Saturday morning, Penguins general manager Ray Shero gave no indication that news was coming.

“We’ll see, hopefully, next week where he is (after) we get the reports from California,” Shero told a crowd of reporters. “The thing with Sidney is we want to continue to look to see how we can get this under control and manageable ... hopefully we’ll have him back here at some point soon.”

Shero, who was at Scotiabank Place on Saturday night, did not meet with the media, but one source indicated the team learned about the injury on Wednesday. Two hours after the news broke, the Penguins released a short statement.

“The diagnosis of Dr. Robert S. Bray, a neurological spine specialist based in Los Angeles, is that Sidney Crosby had suffered a neck injury in addition to a concussion,” read the statement. “Dr. Bray reports that the neck injury is fully healed. Those findings will be evaluated by independent specialists over the next few days. The most important goal all along has been Sidney’s return to full health, and we are encouraged that progress continues to be made.”

It remains unclear whether Crosby actually suffered a second concussion when he received an inadvertent elbow to the head from Boston’s David Krejci on Dec. 5 — he passed an ImPACT concussion test, though some of the symptoms associated with his first concussion returned. This newly diagnosed neck injury, however, may have originated from the hit delivered by Washington’s David Steckel at the 2011 Winter Classic, which was compounded by a hit from Tampa’s Victor Hedman four days later. After the Winter Classic, Crosby complained of a sore neck. He did not play for nearly 12 full months, and then played just eight games before the Krejci hit sent him back to the sidelines.

The good news, of course, is that Crosby’s status will be more fully understood. He was skating in Los Angeles this week while visiting Dr. Bray, and had also visited a doctor in Utah in addition to his work with Atlanta-based chiropractor Ted Carrick.

“We feel comfortable with the situation, meaning that he’s safe, more than anything,” said Brisson. “This week we’ll understand more about what occurred ... it’s a complicated injury ... hopefully it moves him in a closer, better direction to recovery.”

But this answer only produces more questions. How did Penguins doctors miss this injury in January of 2011, before Crosby spent 11-and-a-half months grappling with his health and seeking second opinions? Did the injury heal properly, if undetected? Has Crosby’s health been mishandled, and what were the repercussions? Were the Penguins prepared for the news to be released, and does it indicate a rift with the Crosby camp? What is the state of the Crosby-Penguins relationship?

All that has yet to unspool, even as this news overshadowed the harmless fun of the all-star skills competition.

There had already been indications that relations between Crosby and the Penguins were at least somewhat frayed. Two weeks ago, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Dejan Kovacevic wrote that some of Crosby’s teammates believed he had been symptom-free for some time, and that some believed he should have been playing. Kovacevic also reported that some Penguins believed Crosby was doing a poor job of communicating, or of being visible around the team. Even more incredibly, he cited three sources who said “a group of players held a 45-minute meeting to discuss a temporary captaincy,” though it was disputed by another source.

Sidney Crosby has played eight games in the past year, and the rest of the time he was an enduring mystery. A mystery he remains.


Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/sports/Crosb ... z1kr5o3qWp


http://www.windsorstar.com/sports/Crosb ... story.html

pathetic. let's go wolf pack!