Penguins' Crosby Is Set to Return Thursday - New York Times

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Penguins' Crosby Is Set to Return Thursday - New York Times Mar 13th 2012, 18:24 Sidney Crosby will be in the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Sidney Crosby will be back in the Penguins' lineup on Thursday. "I feel good, and the plan is to play Thursday," Crosby told reporters after practice Tuesday. "I got a good practice and I'm looking forward to getting out there Thursday." Crosby, Pittsburgh's captain, has missed 60 games this season while dealing with concussion symptoms. After missing the second half of last season and the first 20 games this season after sustaining a concussion in the Winter Classic, Crosby returned Nov. 21 for a home game against the Islanders and had two goals and two assists in a 5-0 victory. He last played on Dec. 5 in Boston. In that game, he appeared to sustain an injury in a collision with David Krejci of the Bruins. Doctors diagnosed a soft-tissue injury in his neck. Crosby was sidelined for three months until he was cleared for contact in practice last Tuesday. He has 2 goals and 10 assists in eight games this season. The Penguins were in 10th place in early January. Entering Tuesday's action, Pittsburgh was 4 points behind the Rangers for first place in the Eastern Conference after winning nine consecutive games and 21 of 26. "He's worked really hard to get to this point again to come back and play," Penguins General Manager Ray Shero said at the N.H.L. general managers' meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. "It's exciting from a fan's standpoint. I'm the general manager of the team, but I'm a fan of the game as well, and from that standpoint I'm really happy to see him come back." Shero disclosed a conversation he had with Crosby before last month's trade deadline. "I sat down with him a few days before the deadline, as I always do with our captain to get a feel for the team, what he sees, all these things to keep him in the loop," Shero recalled. "And I said to him, 'There might be a move salary-cap-wise that might put you out of the lineup this year, if you want to come back in the playoffs.' "I didn't have that deal, it's just sort of what I said," Shero continued. "And he said, 'I'm not doing all this, working this hard, not to come back, you know.' I said, O.K., I got you." Shero said it was helpful to have Crosby return during the regular season so that he would have time to acclimate before the playoffs began. The Penguins have three games in four days on the road: Thursday at the Rangers, Saturday at the Devils and Sunday at Philadelphia. All three opponents are in playoff position in the Eastern Conference. "We'll see how things go through Thursday, see how he's doing, see if he plays all three," Shero said. "If he feels real good, he will, but if there's some reason he doesn't, fatigue or whatever, it's O.K. We're in this for the big picture, to the end of the season and the playoffs." Shero said Thursday's game against the first-place Rangers would have been a big one even if Crosby was not playing. "The Rangers have been in first place most of the year," he said. "We've had some real good games against them. They're a real good team, and especially at home they're tough." Asked if he was confident that Crosby's comeback would last longer than his last one, Shero pointed to the greater certainty of knowing about the soft-tissue neck injury, which was undetected before the first comeback. But he acknowledged that it was impossible to know how any return from injury would go. "With anybody coming back, it could be Evgeni Malkin coming back from an A.C.L., or someone coming back from a concussion or shoulder injury, it's probably no different," Shero said. "But I think having gone through this the first time, I think Sid feels better about where he is. He knows what to expect. He'll jump into a certain situation with our team and not be relied upon to play 25 minutes." Jeff Z. Klein contributed reporting from Boca Raton, Fla. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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