Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Sidney Crosby suffered setback in comeback from concussion

Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, right, and Jordan Staal look on during hockey practice in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, April 13, 2011. Crosby has not been cleared to play in tonight’s first-round NHL playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

It’s been almost too quiet on the Sidney Crosby front and now with the Penguins out of the playoffs, the summer will be a bit longer than normal in Pittsburgh. While that’s good news for Crosby in his efforts to get healthy after suffering a concussion in January, as the team packed up for the summer to head home we found out a bit of information that comes as a surprise.

During Crosby’s efforts to make a comeback from his concussion in the playoffs, it turns out the Penguins captain suffered a setback in his training and had to stop skating with the team.

Penguins GM Ray Shero took a very practical approach in looking at the news of Crosby’s setback.

“The great news is that he’s got all kinds of time on his side right now,” Shero said. “Dr. (Micky) Collins expects a full recovery, it’s just a matter of time with this injury. I’m not concerned about it. With the season ending, it’s disappointing, but from Sid’s standpoint, the pressure and the question of when he’ll come back goes away, and now he can go back to healing and feeling good about himself.”

The news is disappointing considering Crosby’s been hurt since early January. With concussions being such a fickle and inexact injury to pinpoint and treat appropriately, the news that he hit a bump in the road is disheartening. Crosby was well on his way to an MVP-type season and one that very likely would’ve been his best as a professional. Instead, all it took was a collision with David Steckel and a hit from Victor Hedman to put an end to his season and on the long road to recovery.

On the upside, Crosby will have no stress during the offseason to take his time to get ready for a hopeful return next season. With training camps opening in September, Crosby has five months to put the concussion symptoms behind him, hopefully, for good. The Penguins were able to continue winning without both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin thanks to Dan Bylsma’s ability as a coach to keep steering the ship straight in a disaster, an effort that earned him a shot at the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year this year. Bylsma would love to have his job made a lot easier next year in getting both of those guys back into the lineup and get back to scoring goals.

For now, the summer turns into an extended waiting process to see how Crosby progresses and whether or not he sees any more setbacks in his recovery and if he can get back to doing what he does best.