(UPDATED) Penguins Practice: Crosby Being Evaluated for Injury

CRANBERRY — Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby did not participate in the team’s practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex Wednesday and is being evaluated for an unspecified upper-body injury, coach Mike Sullivan said.

He added that, “I don’t have any more specifics.”

A teammate, meanwhile, offered a fairly upbeat prognosis for Crosby.

“I just think it was a maintenance day for him,” the teammate said. “Obviously, I don’t know. I didn’t really talk to him all that much.”

Crosby missed roughly half of the third period in the Penguins’ 3-2 shootout loss to New Jersey at PPG Paints Arena Tuesday evening after being involved in a multi-player collision.

He returned for much of the final half of regulation and participated in the overtime and shootout that followed.

Crosby subsequently downplayed any injury when he met with reporters after the game.

He is the Penguins’ captain and leading scorer, with 17 goals and 41 assists in 55 games.

He was the only expected player who did not take part in the workout.

Kevin Hayes filled Crosby’s usual spot on the No. 1 line during drills, but Sullivan declined to speculate on how the Penguins will replace him if he’s not available for their next game, Friday against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Obviously, Sid’s an important guy for us. He’s a tough guy to replace. I’m stating the obvious there.”

Desharnais claims a spot

Defenseman Vincent Darharnais, acquired from Vancouver in the trade that sent Drew O’Connor and Marcus Pettersson to the Canucks, already is establishing himself as valuable member of the Penguins’ penalty-killing unit.

Being 6-foot-7, 226 pounds certainly can be an asset when handling that duty.

“Obviously, his size, his reach are very helpful,” Sullivan said. “He’s hard to play against. He just takes up space. He’s got a long reach and he makes the (offensive-zone) entries difficult. He’s got a little edge to him, He’s got a little snarl to his game, which I think helps us at the net-front, helps us in the battle areas.”

Malkin skates again

Center Evgeni Malkin, who has missed the past four games because of an unspecified lower-body injury, had the latest in a series of on-ice workouts before the full-team practice.

The session lasted about 40 minutes.

The Penguins have listed Malkin as “week-to-week” and have not announced a target date for him to return to the lineup.