After taking a shot off the ankle last night, the sold-out crowd inside Mellon Arena gasped in unison as Crosby skated off to the bench. With his face wretching in pain and an obvious favor of the left leg, it almost seemed like the 2007 season was about to take a tumultuous turn.
Luckily, it's just a bruise. According to Coach Therrion, Crosby is not seriously hurt, but he's also not 100%. Of course, the next game isn't till Wednesday at home against the Canadiens, so he has plenty of time to rest.
Also somewhat winded on the night was the three point scoring Petr Sykora. Sykora, who broke his nose early in the preseason after colliding with Brooks Orpik, played last night's game with two stints up his nostrils. If in case you ever wondered what it was like, try sticking a q-tip up each nostril and playing hockey for 60 minutes. You tend to get winded pretty quickly. But hey, apparantly it didn't show in his place, and frankly if he's going to play that way under those conditions, I say we jam a stint up his nose every game and consider passing it on to other players in the locker room.
In the pre-season the Penguins won their only game against the Canadiens, but also lost the first to them as well. Tomorrow we'll take a look at the Canadiens of 07 and see how they match up against the Pens.
