While Alex Ovechkin and the Winnipeg Jets are holding separate press conferences today for their own special reasons, Sidney Crosby is going to one-up both of them on Wednesday. Crosby is set to speak with reporters in Pittsburgh Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. and while the Penguins didn’t provide the context of what Crosby would be talking about, the assumption here is pretty simple to make.
All summer long we’ve been dealing with reports from here, there, and everywhere about how Crosby’s progress in recovering from his concussion suffered in January has gone poorly and the one person we’ve yet to hear from directly on matters is Crosby himself. We’ve heard from his agent Pat Brisson, Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, and Penguins GM Ray Shero all providing their own brand of public relations when it comes to Crosby.
Now it’s time to hear it from the man himself about how he’s doing in his concussion recovery. We should find out how he’s been handling things, what his progress is, and perhaps even a timetable as to when he’ll be returning to the Penguins. The one thing we can guess from all this for sure is that he’s not likely to be ready to go with the team as training camp opens up next week and that his status to start the season is in doubt.
Of course, Sid could also say that he’s in great shape and that all the idle speculation of late has been patently false and he can’t wait to rub everyone’s face in it from the get-go this year and we should all begin worrying about Gretzky’s records.
All right, if that happens we’ll all have a bit of crow to eat, but still, the time for clandestine reports from some mythical soothsayer in Nova Scotia is over with and we’ll know for sure tomorrow what, exactly, is ailing Sidney Crosby.