Sidney Crosby will miss the next two games and it took the Penguins until late afternoon to figure out that something was wrong with him.
To anyone outside the organization who saw Crosby today following the pregame skate, it didn’t take a doctor to figure out there was something wrong with him.
Crosby after not practicing Thursday due to illness, showed up to the arena Friday morning with a swollen face, a normal symptom of mumps, yet, everyone acted like he was fine or they tried to make the media believe he was.
Case in point Mike Johnston’s comments after the morning skate.
“As far as Sid goes he was checked out by the doctors yesterday and I believe, as I mentioned, that our whole team has gone through some blood tests just to make sure everyone is taking precautions with the mumps, the scare around the league. So from my perspective, just talking to the doctors, they didn’t mention anything like that. They just said he was cleared to play.”
With a mumps outbreak throughout the NHL, stupidity might be a kind word in how the Penguins handled the Crosby situation.
Anybody in the organization with a brain who saw Crosby this morning and players report around 9:00 a.m., should have immediately shut him down from wanting to practice and get him away from the team pending further tests.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Penguins medical staff botched something but you didn’t need to be a doctor to realize something was wrong with Crosby this morning.
The Penguins organization just went along with their day like nothing was wrong until reality kicked in and the Penguins officially announced at 4:00 p.m. they would be holding Crosby out for the next two games after pictures of Crosby were floating around the internet and the media was buzzing about the possibility of Crosby having the mumps.
Just another bizarre handling by the Penguins organization, just like Crosby having a “minor concussion”, James Neal having a fake “broken foot” and the list goes on.
Even if Sidney Crosby actually has the mumps, it’s 50/50 whether the organization will even tell the truth based on how they operate.
TONIGHT’S PENGUINS LINEUP
Nick Spaling – Brandon Sutter – Patric Hornqvist
Blake Comeau – Evgeni Malkin – Jayson Megna
Rob Klinkhammer – Marcel Goc – Steve Downie
Zach Sill – Andrew Ebbett – Craig Adams
DEFENSEMEN
Paul Martin – Kris Letang
Christian Ehrhoff – Robert Bortuzzo
Rob Scuderi – Simon Despres
GOALTENDER
Marc Andre Fleury