Despite the fact that Eric Staal and Nicklas Lidstrom seemingly deserve most of the attention after being named the 2011 NHL All-Star Game captains, today’s stories are all about Crosby, Crosby and more Sidney Crosby. Now they’re even seemingly conflicting, at least if some rumors are correct.
On one hand, there are reports that Brendan Shanahan said that Crosby “couldn’t have been more cooperative” when the two discussed how his concussion issues might affect the All-Star Game. From the sound of things, it seemed like Crosby would maintain his vanilla personality status and just try his best to get healthy enough to return. After all, Shanahan said that the respect from his peers has “never been higher.”
Yet reports are now circulating that Crosby might make a profound statement about the way the league handles concussion issues by “boycotting” the All-Star Game.
Of course, the counterargument is also pretty simple: he might just miss the game because of concussion issues, period. Here’s a back-and-forth on the subject from the original source of the rumors, the Globe & Mail.The Globe’s own David Shoalts has stirred up the punch bowl in advance of the announcement of the all-star captains today -- Sidney Crosby, still out with concussion symptoms following a pair of hits that weren’t penalized and didn’t draw suspensions, may suspend himself from the festivities: The word filtering out of the Pittsburgh Penguins is that Crosby is an angry young man, angry enough to pull his considerable star presence from one of the league’s showcase events because he does not think the NHL is doing enough to protect its players. An NHL source said Crosby is not likely to tell the NHL he is withdrawing from the all-star game to protest the fact neither player who hit him on the head was suspended. However, he could easily decline and cite the need for complete recovery from a mild concussion.The source said Crosby, who showed up at the all-star game in Montreal two years ago even though he sustained a knee injury and could not play, is not inclined to do any more such favours right now.
Meanwhile Greg Wyshinski, aka Puck Daddy, seems to think that a well-timed leak from the Crosby/Penguins camp is all the protest that is going to happen: I don’t believe Crosby will miss the All-Star Game in protest. I do believe he could miss it due to injury. I also believe that when it comes to making a statement about the NHL ‘s policies, leaking this to the Globe & Mail the day before Crosby’s likely named an All-Star captain *is* the protest.Well, this could get interesting. It’s obviously all conjecture at this point, but we’ll keep you updated on Crosby’s concussion status (and how it might affect the Pittsburgh Penguins/All-Star Game) going forward.