The Pittsburgh Penguins star captain suffered a lower-body injury while representing Team Canada in the Winter Olympics.
It must have felt unimaginable for Team Canada as Team USA’s Jack Hughes’ golden goal sailed into the net in overtime to bring the gold to the United States for the first time in 46 years at the 2026 Winter Olympics. It must have felt even worse being Sidney Crosby, who was helplessly watching on the sidelines while his team lost out due to a lower body injury sustained during the team’s quarterfinal win over Team Czechia. It’s made even worse by the fact that it was the first time in 12 years that NHL players could participate – and it could easily by Crosby’s last Olympic appearance.
Unfortunately, that injury will affect his NHL career, as the Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Wednesday that their captain will miss at least four weeks and will be moved to injured reserve for his injury. The injury happened while bracing for a hit from Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas, where Gudas fell on top of Crosby while his right leg bent in an unnatural way. Crosby exited and didn’t return. When the Penguins resume play out of the Olympic break on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils, they also will be without captain Crosby.
Here is the full story from Penguins Roundtable writer Kelsey Surmacz on the impact that Crosby made on both his team and rival USA despite his Olympic absence, one that will continue into the NHL season.
Crosby was part of Team Canada in 2014 when they took home gold – and it was the last time that NHL players would be allowed to participate until this year. In a selfless move, Crosby elected to sit out, saying he didn’t want to jeopardize the team if he wasn’t good, allowing a healthy forward to slot in. Unfortunately, he was clearly right that his body wouldn’t be good to go with the IR news out of Pittsburgh.