Penguins captain Sidney Crosby remains to be being evaluated for the upper-body damage he suffered in Tuesday’s shootout loss to the Devils, head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed to reporters Wednesday.
Crosby bought shaken up halfway via the third interval of the competition when he was caught between New Jersey skaters Erik Haula and Luke Hughes shortly after disposing of the puck. He didn’t go away the sport however wasn’t out there to follow Wednesday, Sullivan stated.
An absence of any size ends Pittsburgh’s more and more slim playoff hopes, which dropped to 0.9% after the shootout loss. They’re 4-5-1 of their final 10 video games and 7 factors again of a playoff spot however have performed three extra video games than the eight-place Lightning. They’ve been buoyed by their offense amid below-average protection and bottom-five goaltending, and the 37-year-old Crosby leads the pack as their solely point-per-game participant with 58 in 55 appearances.
Crosby continues to function the crew’s undoubted MVP, averaging north of 20 minutes per recreation and successful 56.1% of his attracts. He could have a -15 precise score, however his possession numbers rank among the many crew’s greatest at even power with a 53.4 CF% and +2.6 anticipated score. Cody Glass is the one Penguin to put up higher numbers in each stats.
He hasn’t missed a recreation resulting from damage since a concussion saved him out of Sport 6 of their 2022 first-round sequence in opposition to the Rangers. The Pens are additionally with out No. 2 mainstay Evgeni Malkin, leaving Glass and Kevin Hayes as their projected top-six facilities in opposition to the Blueshirts on Friday if Crosby can’t go.
The three-time Stanley Cup winner was additionally lately named captain for Group Canada on the 4 Nations Face-Off, which begins subsequent week. He’d go away an enormous gap on the Canadian squad, whose captaincy would presumably be stuffed by Connor McDavid if he can’t take part within the match.
