Sidney Crosby has done this plenty of times.<\/p>\n
Accepting a prized silver award after a fiercely competitive hockey game is something he has done repeatedly throughout his dazzling 21 years in the NHL.<\/p>\n
After all, his name appears three times on the Stanley Cup, composed of a silver and nickel alloy.<\/p>\n
But on Sunday, the context was different.<\/p>\n
Crosby didn\u2019t play, but he took to the ice in full equipment and uniform to receive a silver medal as the injured captain of Canada\u2019s entry into the men\u2019s Olympic tournament in Milan.<\/p>\n
Having guided Canada to the gold medal in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, Crosby watched as the rival United States claimed gold for the first time in 46 years with a riveting 2-1 victory at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.<\/p>\n
An unspecified injury he suffered in a quarterfinal-round game kept Crosby out of the lineup for Canada\u2019s final two games of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Crosby reportedly made the decision to sit for Sunday\u2019s game, feeling he would be a detriment to Canada\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about what\u2019s best for our group and what gives us the best chance to win,\u201d Crosby said, via the Canadian Press wire service. \u201cThat becomes pretty clear at that point. If I\u2019m not able to go, I\u2019m not (going to) compromise our team, put myself ahead of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby\u2019s choice did not surprise his teammates with the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just a high character player,\u201d linemate Bryan Rust said following practice Sunday in Cranberry. \u201cEvery player in that situation \u2014 but especially him \u2014 wanted to play in that game. But knowing that he wasn\u2019t going to be able to help his team to the best of his ability \u2014 or even to an ability that was acceptable \u2014 shows a lot of self-awareness, and it\u2019s extremely high character.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby has a lengthy history of exercising such caution if he feels he could damage his team\u2019s chances of winning in a high-stakes scenario.<\/p>\n
Most famously, during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Crosby\u2019s left knee was rammed into the boards of Joe Louis Arena by Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen in the second period.<\/p>\n
Hobbled, he remained on the bench for most of the remainder of that contest, which the Penguins won 2-1 to claim the franchise\u2019s third title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he tried everything to play that game,\u201d said defenseman Kris Letang, a member of that 2009 championship squad. \u201cAnd at the end of the day, if he thinks it\u2019s not going to help, he\u2019s going to leave a spot for a guy that\u2019s healthy and try to help the team. So selfless and he\u2019s a guy that worries more about winning than anything other than just his self-image or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as when Crosby will be able to help the team he is employed by in this country, that remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Coach Dan Muse indicated a status for Crosby as it pertains to his duties with the Penguins would not be determined until he returned to town. Idle since Feb. 5 for the Olympic break, the Penguins are scheduled to resume play Thursday with a home contest against the New Jersey Devils.<\/p>\n
Given that Crosby was simply in consideration to be in Canada\u2019s lineup Sunday, spirits were buoyant amongst his Penguins teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a chance of him playing in the game,\u201d Rust said. \u201cJust to see that means that he\u2019s not far off.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, ultimately, might prove to be a silver lining for Crosby and the Penguins.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing him, it must have been hard,\u201d Letang said. \u201cHe probably sat in the locker room with his gear on and watched it on TV. It must have been hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, a guy like that wants the puck on his stick and (to) try to make a difference to help his team win the gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Penguins forward Rickard Rakell (Sweden) and goaltender Arturs Silovs (Latvia) rejoined their Penguins teammates for practice after participating in the Olympics. Defenseman Erik Karlsson (Sweden) was given a day off to rest and is scheduled to practice Monday, Muse said. \u2026 The NHL\u2019s trade freeze is scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sidney Crosby has done this plenty of times. Accepting a prized silver award after a fiercely competitive hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-485156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}