Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby Cleared for Off-Ice Workout –National Hockey League Update
A big reason why the Eastern Conference’s fourth seed, Pittsburgh Penguins, was not able to go deep in the playoffs this time was the absence of two of its main players, captain, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin.
Sidney Crosby has been cleared by the medical staff to participate in off-ice workouts during the offseason as the team prepares for the next National Hockey League (NHL) season which will begin in October as the playoff finals are currently in session.
Crosby met with Dr. Michael Collins who has been monitoring the 23-year- old player since he sustained a severe concussion back in January.
"I don't want to look too far ahead, or whatever", Penguins’ GM, Ray Shero, told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday. "But there's no reason for me to expect him not to be (ready for camp), put it that way".
Dr. Collins gave the green signal to Crosby to get back to his workouts with a personal trainer for the next couple of weeks to get back into routine at his hometown city, Cole Harbour, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
"Everything will be closely managed by Dr. Collins", Shero said, "in terms of his progression leading up to him getting on the ice later in the summer per his usual routine".
Crosby’s absence from Penguins, that entered the quarterfinals of the 2011 NHL Playoffs against a rowdy Tampa Bay Lightning, played well for the first half of the series as it threatened Lightning to be eliminated from the playoffs with a 3-1 lead after
Game 4.
Unfortunately, without the guidance of its skipper, Penguins went on to lose three consecutive games and was eliminated from the postseason.
The 2010-2011 season had remained low key for Crosby as he participated in the lowest amount of games in his career so far, only playing 41.
In that time, he still managed to score the most goals for the team, 32, for a total of 66 points.
He is expected to fully recover during the offseason and hopefully return to ice as soon as possible.
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