There was plenty of chatter over the weekend about the status of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who has been working out at home in Nova Scotia while trying to come back from concussion symptoms that have kept him off the ice since January.
Reports from Sirius Radio, in fact, said that Crosby had suffered setbacks and would not be ready for the start of the 2011-12 regular season. Penguins GM Ray Shero had to dissuade those rumors Sunday and did so again Monday during a rare August meeting with reporters. Still, Shero was hardly 100 percent convincing either.
“There’s no expectation from me that he won’t be ready or he will be ready,” said Shero, who admitted Crosby pulled back on some of his workouts but continues to train at home with his personal trainer and did not shut them down.
Any further delay in Crosby's return is obviously a big loss for the Penguins and a huge one for the NHL. The Penguins clearly held Crosby out of last year's playoffs to make sure his career was protected and he was ready for this year. Now they'll be holding their breath in September, and probably through the season, every time Crosby gets hit.
Here's the full transcript of Shero's news conference, courtesy of the Penguins' Web site.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
