Crosby Has Mild Concussion; Sits Out 2-1 Shootout Loss in Montreal

It's no wonder he was mostly held off the scoresheet while his teammates put an 8 on the board.

Penguins' Captain and NHL scoring leader Sidney Crosby had a concussion.

After tallying only a single assist among the 20+ points his team rang up on Wednesday night at home in an 8-1 beating of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and after flying with the team postgame to Montreal where the Penguins would play the Canadiens last night, Crosby took a separate charter back to Pittsburgh yesterday before the game -- ultimately a 2-1 shootout loss -- where team doctors there diagnosed him with a 'mild concussion'.

Prior to yesterday's contest when Head Coach Dan Bylsma announced that Crosby wouldn't be in the lineup, he said simply that Crosby had an 'upper body injury'.

After the game, though, Bylsma got word from the experts back home and -- together with announcing the diagnosis -- spread the word that Crosby would be out about a week.

Concussions are always a concern because with each one, a player is said to be more susceptible to another, but the good news is that this one seems to be of the more basic variety.

What's quite curious about the situation, however, is the decision to play Crosby against the Lightning when -- as I and many others speculate -- the concussion was sustained in the Winter Classic when Washington Capitals' forward David Steckel caught Crosby in the head with a pretty solid blow when he was skating up the ice late in the second period.

Bylsma wouldn't confirm that's when the concussion occurred.  In fact, prior to last night's game, he said the opposite -- that the injury was sustained in Wednesday's game. 

Crosby did have his head and face shoved up against the glass by Lightning blueliner Victor Hedman in the game -- a hit that left Crosby with a stunned grimace -- but he continued to play after that hit, just like he did in the third period of the Winter Classic after the Steckel hit.

Disco Dan added last night that Crosby was seen by doctors at Heinz Field, and again Wednesday night after the win against the Lightning, but when he woke up in the morning in Montreal, he didn't feel good.

That's when they decided to send #87 back home.

Things without Crosby were no picnic last night against the Canadiens, either. 

In a complete contrast with the night before, the Penguins weren't able to generate much offense.  They got an early goal from Aaron Asham -- who actually had been a healthy scratch against the Lightning but returned last night -- but that was the extent of their production.

In fact, they were outscored by some french guy with more vowels in his name than I have fingers.

Okay -- maybe not that many -- but Benoit Pouliot scored Montreal's only goal in regulation in the 2nd period, then scored their only goal in 5 chances in the shootout against Pens' netminder Brent Johnson.

That might have been good enough for Pittsburgh to pull out the extra point on most nights, but with defenseman Kris Letang and forwards Pascal Dupuis, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Letestu and Chris Kunitz all failing to beat Habs' goalie Carey Price on their turns in the shootout, the bruised and battered Penguins suffered a 2-1 defeat.

While Pittsburgh ultimately outshot Montreal 32-23 on the night, I don't think the ice was titled quite that much.  

The Pens had the better of the play in the opening frame, but Montreal did a better job generating good chances most of the rest of the way and -- save for a few real good chances that Jordan Staal had but could not convert -- let a tall and confident Carey Price easily toss aside most of what the Penguins threw at him from the outside .

In fact, the Boys of Winter could very well consider themselves fortunate to get the point, since they had to kill off about 3 and 1/2 consecutive shorthanded minutes with the third period winding down -- including two straight minutes of 5-on-3 time -- thanks to several consecutive penalties, two of which involved shooting the puck over the glass from their own zone.

That's a penalty that's happened to Pittsburgh a bit too much lately, and something they definitely have to be more careful of.

The Penguins also had to deal with adjusted lines last night with Crosby out of action.

Letestu stepped up to center the #1 line with Kunitz and Dupuis, so Bylsma could leave the 2nd line with Staal, Malkin and Tyler Kennedy intact.  Max Talbot centered the third line in Letestu's place, and Asham stepped in on the left side there because LW Matt Cooke also missed last night's game.  He had to fly back to Pittsburgh with Crosby for what has only been disclosed as "personal reasons".

Finally, on top of those changes, the Penguins had to dress 7 defenseman just to field a full roster, and that led to Deryk Engelland getting about 5 minutes of action on the wing in the game.

So, the Penguins will lick their wounds and return home, where they will next face the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night at the CONSOL Energy Center.

While Crosby won't play, there's no word yet on Cooke's status, and there may even be a bit of a question about the playing status of Malkin, who had an awkward fall late in the third period last night after Montreal forward Scott Gomez pitchforked Malkin's skate blade out from underneath him and forced him to twist his left knee -- the same one that was injured for him earlier this season -- and do a bit of a split, to boot.

While Malkin thankfully returned to play, he was said to be favoring the leg a little bit after the game.

Personally, I thought he might have pulled a groin.

Anyway, in light of all this, there's a chance that someone from Wilkes-Barre is going to join the club in time for tomorrow's contest.  We'll see.

More this weekend ...