Crosby To Miss 9th Straight Game As Penguins Ready For Islanders

As the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to face-off against the New York Islanders tonight at the CONSOL Energy Center (7:00 PM, EST) in their final game before this weekend's All-Star festivities, Captain Sidney Crosby spoke with the media yesterday as he continues to recover from his concussion.

Crosby is still not symptom free, even 3 weeks after the hits which are believed to have caused his current predicament -- one from Washington Capitals' center David Steckel in the Winter Classic and another from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman on January 5.

Primarily, he's still dealing with headaches, and the admittedly frustrating part for Crosby is that there doesn't appear to be a consistent cause for them.

"It's brutal," Crosby said.  "You sit around and can't do anything.  Early on, I could barely watch TV, but I've been able to do that more.  It's the things you take for granted and do every day, like driving."

Crosby's headaches have lessened the last few days, so he seems to be on the mend, but there remains no timetable for him to even resume dry land training, let alone to get on the ice and play again.  Because of that, his absence is likely to continue to be measured in terms of weeks, not days.

"It's really difficult.  It doesn't get any easier with each day that goes by.  It gets tougher and tougher to work your way back into it," Crosby said.

Not surprisingly, Penguins' GM Ray Shero announced yesterday that Crosby -- the league's leading vote-getter by a wide margin -- will not play in the upcoming All-Star game, nor attend any of the weekend's festivities.

"Sidney is making progress in his recovery, but still is not completely symptom-free," said Shero.

Crosby's concussion has gotten a lot of attention in the national media the last few weeks, and it's likely to get even more attention when league executives convene together during the All-Star game this weekend and probably re-kindle debate on whether Rule 48 -- which the league passed last year in response to some wickedly violent blows to the head, including one laid on Boston Bruins' center Marc Savard by Crosby's teammate, Matt Cooke -- goes far enough, especially since most observers feel that when Steckel hit Crosby, it was mostly incidental contact.

Rule 48 banned all blindside, backside or lateral checks to the head of another player and, without a doubt, instituting that rule has been a step in the right direction for the league.

But Crosby's concussion has generated good diagloue about whether all blows to the head -- no matter in which direction, and no matter whether intentional or not -- should be subject to penalty, fine and/or suspension.

Make no mistake, Crosby's concussion has proven to be serious, and more scary for his future than I and many others first anticipated.

He has to be immensely careful getting back and, when he does, Penguin fans should do a little praying and hope that Crosby doesn't sustain another blow to the head in the next few seasons, because it's pretty well established at this point -- both as a matter of medicine and as a matter of documented record on the ice with other NHL players -- that once you have a concussion, you're more susceptible to another.

And if you start accumulating them rapidly, one star-studded career can be brought to an end quickly.

Look no further than the case of Savard, one of the league's better talents who missed about 3 months after Cooke laid him out last year, only to return for a handful of playoff games before the Bruins were eliminated from the post-season, then be diagnosed with recurring symptoms this summer when he resumed training.

That kept Savard on the shelf for the first few months of this year.  Since he's returned, he's already had 2 incidents on the ice taking checks where his head was subject to some contact with the glass or boards -- including an 'everyday' hit from Pens' blueliner Deryk Engelland in a game a few weeks ago.  Those collisions left him wobbly and now he's back on the sidelines once more after being diagnosed with a moderate concussion.

It's also worth pointing out that Savard, a consistent point-per-game player, appeared a shadow of his former self on the ice in the 25 games he did play this season, scoring only 2 goals and about 10 points.

Concussions are serious, folks.  I'm all out for holding Crosby on the sidelines for as long as it takes.  I'd rather see 15 more consistently excellent years out of him in a Pittsburgh uniform than 5 years plagued by recurring concussion symptoms.  It's just not worth it.

While Evgeni Malkin doesn't have a concussion like Crosby does, he does have a sinus infection and has continued to deal with a recurring knee problem, both of which will conspire to keep him not only out of the lineup tonight against the Isles but -- like Crosby -- probably out of this weekend's All-Star game and festivities, as well.

The Penguins haven't made a final decision on the latter point, but there's really little incentive for their organization to give Geno the go-ahead to play there.  The infection will probably go away by then, but the knee issue has given him trouble for 6-8 weeks now, and he needs more rest. 
Pittsburgh should take the built-in break the schedule gives them at this time of year and let Malkin maximize that for his own health.

With hope that Staal and the Pens' blueliners lead the way tonight, I'll have a game recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!