As had widely been expected, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be forced to attempt to close out the New York Rangers in Friday's Game 6 of the first-round playoff series held at PPG Paints Arena without superstar captain Sidney Crosby in the lineup.
Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Crosby won't play Friday evening due to the injury he suffered in Wednesday's 5-3 loss.
Coach Sullivan on Sidney Crosby's status: "He skated this morning with Ty Hennes. He will not play tonight."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 13, 2022
Sidney Crosby will not play tonight. He skated this morning with the skills coach.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 13, 2022
It's unknown if Crosby could be available for a potential Game 7 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but history suggests he'd be a spectator for that contest if his teammates don't get the job done at home later on Friday.
Crosby exited Wednesday's matchup before the end of the second period following a controversial high hit delivered by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba and never returned. The future Hall of Famer with a worrisome history of head injuries and issues related to concussions is officially "day-to-day" due to an announced unspecified upper-body injury, and it's likely his status for a potential Game 7 wouldn't be known until late Sunday morning or some point in the afternoon.
Trouba avoided supplemental discipline from the league.
Until Wednesday's development, the Rangers proved to have few answers for Crosby and his line. The 34-year-old center leads the Pens for the series with nine points and seven assists.
"Kind of tried going stick on puck when he was gonna shoot," Trouba told reporters on Thursday about Wednesday's incident. "My stick kind of went in between his legs and kind of hit his thigh, kind of pushed my arm up. Kind of a fluky play, wasn't massively hard contact. Unfortunately, you don't ever want to see a guy get hurt. I don't know exactly what the injury is, but hopefully, he's better soon."
It's assumed Evgeni Malkin will replace Crosby as Pittsburgh's first-line center. Pittsburgh recalled forward Radim Zohorna from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League on Thursday.
Here's how the lines look without Crosby:
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 13, 2022
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Heinen-Rodrigues-Kapanen
Zucker-Carter-McGinn
Boyle-Blueger-O’Connor
(Rakell did not take rushes)
The D-pairs are the same without Dumoulin:
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
More must-reads:
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