Crosby on wrist: “I wouldn’t have gotten through the season if I didn’t take care of it”

After a wrist surgery on September 8th that carried a minimum six week recovery time for Sidney Crosby, it would be tough to not notice that Wednesday marked the six week point. It’s been a fairly quiet week for Crosby though, he’s been skating before and sometimes during Penguins practices for quite a while, but the captain was off the ice on Wednesday and Thursday in what was described as planned rest or off-ice rehab days. Crosby has already been ruled out from playing in tomorrow’s game against Toronto.

However, on Friday, Crosby was practicing more than ever before — even stepping into line rushes and playing a bit with power play drills in another small but tangible step forward in his process to eventually rejoin the lineup.

After practice, Sid also talked with the media, which is something that almost never happens for injured Pens players.

This next quote is key in where Crosby is at physically. While it is great that Pittsburgh is 2-0-2 to start the season, this isn’t a situation where the team is giving Crosby more time or not rushing him back due to the success on the ice right now. With a wrist like this, Crosby is not capable of playing right now.

Even if the Pens were 0-2-2 or 0-4-0, Crosby can’t play and he’s not going to help much as a center when he doesn’t have the strength in his wrist to be effective at bearing down for faceoffs or being able to battle.

Based on being on the ice and being around the team, the sense was positive that Crosby might miss close to the bare minimum amount of time possible, which would have seen him dress for his first game tomorrow against the Maple Leafs. Now, we know that won’t happen quite so soon and Crosby said today he has no specifically target return date, it will be based on when he is ready. It remains to be seen when that will be, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer.