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Crosby out six weeks for Penguins following ‘core muscle injury repair’

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will miss at least the next six weeks after undergoing a successful core muscle injury repair, per the team.

Crosby was injured last Saturday against the Blackhawks. The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reported this week that the forward had been bothered by a sports hernia since training camp, but held off on surgery due to the number of injuries affecting the team. The Penguins are also currently without Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist, both of whom are sidelined with lower-body injuries.

After concussion and other various injuries earlier in his career, Crosby has stayed relatively healthy for the last six seasons, missing only a total of 19 regular-season games since 2013-14. A six-week timeline would have him back in the lineup just after Christmas, which would have him out for 18 games.

“I don’t think the guys are deflated by any stretch,” Sullivan said earlier this week. “Obviously, [Crosby] is a critically important player for us. He’s not an easy guy to replace with everything that he does and he helps in the way he helps our team, and the contributions he makes. No one person is going to pick up that slack.”

In Crosby’s place on the Penguins’ top was Jared McCann Tuesday night alongside Alex Galchenyuk and Jake Guentzel. There will be more “the rest of us have to step up” talk coming from the dressing room now that their captain has joined the list of injured teammates.

For their part, the Penguins have had pretty balanced scoring through the first month of the season with 15 different forwards netting goals. But without the captain and Hornqvist up front, that production cannot let up if they’re to maintain their spot in the early-season playoff mix in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference.

MORE: Our Line Starts podcast: Crosby, Marner injuries; Montgomery’s comments

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.