Sidney Crosby a full participant with “no restrictions” at Monday’s practice

Some of Sidney Crosby’s words from Saturday provided a road map for this week.

“Monday’s kind of the soonest I guess as far as [practicing] with the team,” Crosby said Saturday afternoon. “I’m hoping that I can skate with the team on Monday and just take it from there. Ideally, I’d be able to play in [the Tuesday exhibition vs. Philly]. If not, just kind of go a day at time from there. But I’m hoping that I can get in that game.”

Good news on Monday came when the “hope” of participating in practice with the Penguins became a reality.

After the practice coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby participated with no restrictions, but when asked if Crosby will play tomorrow against the Flyers, Sullivan was typically coy.

“We’ll make that decision tomorrow,” was all Sullivan offered, which isn’t unexpected for a coach who notoriously considers the whole roster to be “day-to-day”.

So we’ll have to wait and see if Crosby can stick to his potential schedule laid out and be able to participate tomorrow. If so and he can, that’s all the more indication that Crosby will be good to go for the Pens on Saturday night when they meet the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the qualification round of the NHL playoffs.