One piece of good news and one piece of (expected) bad news on the front for superstar centers today for the Penguins.
Let’s get the bad out of the way, Evgeni Malkin is facing a suspension from the league for his slashing penalty last night against the Sabres.
The hearing being conducted over the phone could be a telling sign of the discipline coming. That it’s just a hearing and not an in-person meeting suggests the suspension will be five games or less, since an in-person meeting must be offered if the more serious amount of discipline is being considered. Malkin was last suspended in 2022 for four games over crossing-checking a player in the face, but somehow it doesn’t look like his latest brush with the league will be more damaging. Malkin was given a game misconduct and kicked out of virtually two-thirds of a game to start with, we’ll see how much more time off that he could be looking at being away from the Penguins.
In happier news, Sidney Crosby has returned to practice, wearing a normal jersey and looking mighty healthy today.
GM Kyle Dubas said yesterday that it has now has been already over two weeks since Crosby was injured and the team was hopeful that all his hard work rehabbing the injury would progress into something further.
> I think, as you know, he’s extraordinarily diligent, and is going to do everything he can. He always puts his team first. And his way of doing that is making decisions that are totally selfless over there in Milan, and then coming back here and really doing everything he can to get back and help the Penguins. So, he’s in here for long hours every day rehabbing his injury. It’s been over two weeks now, so hopefully we’ve kind of crossed the peak, and we’re coming down the other side where we’ll start to see him get back on the ice and test it that way. Obviously that that will be the best trade deadline addition that we could make, is when Sid returns to the lineup. We’ll just continue to try to stack some points up in his absence and put the team in a good spot as he has put the team in a great spot for over two decades now. So, it’s the team’s chance to give back.
Crosby is eligible to come off the injured reserve at any time. It’s been just over two weeks since he suffered the injury (and due to trying to play in the gold medal game, plus traveling back to Pittsburgh, it was also noted he did not immediately begin his rehab) so it remains to be seen exactly when he will return to the lineup. However, if he passes the test of getting through today’s practice, things would have to look good for Crosby to join the team on their upcoming road trip and possibly comeback sooner than later.
