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Sidney Crosby starts season on injured reserve, but there’s hope

Sidney Crosby

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, left, skates during a drill on the first day of NHL hockey training camp at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

We all know how Sidney Crosby is doing well during training camp in pushing himself to be ready to play at some point this season. He’s been practicing with the team, albeit without contact, and he’s going through all the drills and exercises any player would do in camp.

With the season starting this week and the team heading to Vancouver to kick off the season, the Penguins put Crosby on injured reserve to start the season. By being on IR that normally means Crosby won’t be able to play for at least a week. That’s not the case here as Crosby is being carried over on IR from the previous season, he can come off at any point. The key thing here is that Crosby isn’t starting the season on long-term injured reserve. LTIR means a player has to be out for 24 days and up to ten games.

We know Crosby is traveling with the Penguins to Vancouver, but his progress is improving so much that the lack of LTIR designation hints that Crosby could be ready to go within a month. As we’ve seen all throughout Crosby’s progress in coming back from his concussion, the Penguins have treated him very carefully in making sure he’s 100% clear of symptoms before getting back to full-contact action in practice and for games.

We’re not coming right out and saying that Crosby is going to be playing games within a month for Pittsburgh, anything can happen in the meantime, but Crosby’s progress is far enough along that the Penguins don’t feel the need to put him on LTIR to start the year. Whenever Crosby is ready to go, we’ll all be sure to hear about it shouted from the confluence of the three rivers in Pittsburgh, but if you’re a Penguins fan or just a Crosby fan, this is just a sliver of promise that perhaps Sid the Kid’s return might not be as far away as you’d think.