Sidney Crosby Injury Update; Ryan Reaves Caused Initial Injury in 2014

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been dealing with his wrist injury for seven years. Every summer, he rehabbed. Every summer, it responded. And every season, it worsened until last summer when it didn’t respond.

And that’s why Crosby had wrist surgery on the eve of training camp.

“It was something I was always able to manage in the summer being able to get rest, and then during the year, it was always something that would come back, and I would be able to get through it. But this year, it just wouldn’t come back over the summer when we tried to rehab it and avoid surgery,” said Crosby.

Sidney Crosby, 34, admitted a few things as he discussed his situation and what comes next. Crosby remembered the injurious hit, and for a good reason.

After Friday’s morning skate, the star center revealed to the media that former Penguin Ryan Reaves initially caused a wrist injury to Crosby back in 2014. Reaves caught Crosby at center ice at Consol Energy Center in a March 2014 game where David Backes scored the only goal.

“The first time I ever injured it was seven years ago. Reavo (Ryan Reaves) got a hold of me pretty good at home here after the Olympics, and it was something I have kind of had to manage since then, and I was able to avoid having to do any surgery or anything like that until last year,” said Crosby.

As you can see, Reaves trucked Crosby, who tried to stop a freight train at center ice. Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest play of Crosby’s illustrious career:

Crosby was back at practice and skated with the team on Friday. The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently missing Crosby, Evgeni Malkin (knee), Bryan Rust (lower-body), and Jeff Carter (COVID). However, the three-time Stanley Cup Champion is not rushing his return to the team as he continues to nurse his wrist injury, which he had surgery for in early September.

“It has been a progression the past six weeks. I started out skating with no pucks, and one hand on the stick to then progressed to stickhandle a little bit and then shooting eventually. Obviously, being able to join the team means that I can do a little bit more as far as battling and things like that. So I think at this point it is just more of seeing how that progression goes and that will determine eventually when I play,” said Crosby.

One of the more interesting admissions, even if it wasn’t meant as such, was the surgery cannot be repeated–well, maybe on his other wrist.

He had the wrist scoped during the shortened 2020 offseason but had a repair operation in September.

“I think we all felt like it wouldn’t have been something that we would have got through the season with it if I didn’t take care of it. Unfortunately, I will miss some time here early, but I guess the other side of that would be missing a lot more games probably in the middle of the year,” said Crosby.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have six games remaining on their current homestand. It is more than likely that Crosby will be back before the team heads back on the road on Nov. 9. 

Watch the entire Sidney Crosby press conference here:

*Owen Krepps is an intern with Pittsburgh Hockey Now. Dan Kingerski contributed to this story.