Sea of Cs
Whoever said that the Pens locker room was becoming impatient with Sidney Crosby’s recover was far off. The team skated this morning with many Captains on the ice. No literally, every Pens player wore a ‘C’ on their chest made out of tape, except for Evgeni Malkin who decided to wear the Russian version with a ‘K’. If this doesn’t show unity within this team, I don’t know what does.
Crosby, the true and only captain, skated this morning for the first time in over a month after being shut down by team doctors for the reoccurrence of concussion symptoms. Crosby said that although he is not symptom free, he is getting better. But he also addressed his biggest concern. “The motion stuff has kind of been the issue, both the time before and now going through it for a bit now. The good thing is that I have a pretty good handle on it and I’m always able to improve that,” he told reporters at the morning skate this morning.
Although he has addressed these problems, he acknowledged that if necessary, he will return to Georgia to talk to concussion experts that he believed helped the first time around.
Even in the midst of a six-game losing streak, which is the longest since Crosby’s rookie year, the Pens are looking up and believe that the answers are within the locker room. General Manger, Ray Shero addressed the media yesterday and talked about the current direction of the team in the midst of wide-spread injuries. “We’re making the playoffs…anything less is unacceptable,” Shero told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review yesterday.
With the trade deadline approaching, Shero has not talked about specific trades but has admitted that he will wait until specific players are healthy before he thinks about possible opportunities.
As a fan, it is great to see some good news coming from our team even in rough times, but it is still hard to see at how much work we have cut out for us. No matter what happens, Brooks Orpik puts it perfectly telling the Pittsburgh media, “Sid will be our Captain until the day he retires.”
And if that quote wasn’t enough, the players’ actions this morning proved it.
Black Tie Required 