Pens Still Deadly Without Crosby Monday, 04.01.2013 / 5:45 PM / Features By Sam Kasan / http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.ht...t-twt-penguins
The collective heart of Penguins fans everywhere, and especially the CONSOL Energy Center record crowd of 18,673, sank after a Brooks Orpik slap shot deflected into the mouth of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby 87 seconds into the team’s Saturday afternoon game against the New York Islanders.
James Neal, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Simon Despres
(Getty Images)
Crosby, who leads the NHL in scoring with 56 points (15G-41A), left the game and went to the hospital to have surgery to repair a broken jaw and underwent major dental work. He is currently out of the lineup indefinitely.
But Sidney Crosby will be back. The team isn’t sure when – they’re hoping to have some idea of a timeline later in the week – but general manager Ray Shero sounded optimistic after visiting his captain in the hospital Sunday.
In the meantime, the Penguins play on.
It’s a huge blow to any team that loses its best player, especially when its best player is also the best player in the world. But this isn’t any team.
“It’s a huge loss,” James Neal said. “The way ‘Sid’ has been playing is unbelievable. We have good depth on this team. It gives guys a chance to step up, especially the new guys. I think we’ll be OK.”
While the Penguins would always prefer to have Crosby in the lineup, they still have a pretty potent collection of talent in Evgeni Malkin (himself an NHL MVP and two-time scoring champion), James Neal (a 40-goal scorer), Jarome Iginla (one scoring title and two goal-scoring titles), Chris Kunitz, Brenden Morrow, Brandon Sutter and Pascal Dupuis.
The Penguins have played a third of the season without Malkin due to injuries, but still boast the NHL’s No. 1 ranked offense with 3.36 goals per game. Scoring has never been a problem for the Penguins, no matter who is in the lineup.
And for that matter, winning has never been a problem either...
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