Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby left Wednesday’s playoff game during the second period because of an injury after absorbing a hit to his head.
Crosby did not play after taking a 24-second shift that ended with 6 minutes, 50 seconds left in the second period of Wednesday’s Game 5 of the Penguins-New York Rangers first-round playoff series.
The Penguins lost the game 5-3 but lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.
Asked after the game ended if there was an update on Crosby’s injury, coach Mike Sullivan said, “No, he is being evaluated right now.”
Sullivan later allowed that it was an “upper-body injury.”
Crosby left the game after New York defenseman Jacob Trouba levied an elbow to Crosby’s head as Crosby was skating through the shot. He played two shifts after the hit but was shown on television appearing dazed while he sat on the bench.
The play was not penalized.
Sullivan was asked his opinion on Trouba’s hit.
“Did you see the hit?” he rhetorically asked the reporter who posed the question, pausing.
“You probably have the same opinion I do.”
The Rangers levied several hard hits throughout the game on Crosby, who had nine points during the series’ first four games and taken over the league postseason scoring lead (since surpassed) with a three-point effort during the Penguins’ Game 4 victory at home Monday. Rangers center Mika Zibanejad high-sticked Crosby off a faceoff during the second period.
Crosby missed the second half of the 2010-11 season and roughly three-quarters of the following season because of concussion issues. He has not had any significant head injury since.
Crosby missed the first seven games of this past regular season after undergoing wrist surgery in September. He missed six other games for other reasons this season, including joining the covid-19 list.
“Obviously, no one wants to see anyone get hurt,” Penguins center Teddy Blueger said. “Obviously, Sid’s a real important player for us. Throughout the course of the year, we played without him and have done pretty well. We battled through injuries. So I don’t think it’s anything we can’t overcome.”
To compensate for Crosby’s absence Wednesday, Sullivan moved each of the team’s other three centers “up” a line — Evgeni Malkin between Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel, Jeff Carter to Malkin’s original spot with Kasperi Kapanen and Danton Heinen and Blueger centering Brock McGinn and Jason Zucker.
