How concerning is Sidney Crosby’s injury for the Penguins?

Sidney Crosby’s absence was felt in Canada’s loss to the United States in Sunday’s Olympic gold-medal game for men’s hockey. The Canadian captain was injured in the team’s quarterfinal matchup to Czechia and missed both the semifinal against Finland and the gold-medal game.

But the NHL season will soon begin again, and there’s no word on how long the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain will be out of the lineup. The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time, as Crosby, who is 38 and in the midst of his 21st NHL season, has a team-leading 59 points (27 goals and 32 assists) in just 56 regular-season games.

The Penguins are currently 29-15-12 with 70 points, second in the Metropolitan Division and, with 26 games remaining in the 2025-26 regular season, on pace to clinch a playoff berth for the first time in four years. However, if Crosby is out for an extended period of time, all bets are off.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Josh Getzoff to discuss Crosby’s injury and what comes next for the Penguins.

Tyler Yaremchuk: How worried are the Penguins over the status of Sidney Crosby?

Josh Getzoff: I think “worry” is a fair word. I think “panic” is probably not the correct term, at this point. Everyone saw Crosby the other day in Milan during the gold-medal game, so I think that was good, because we hadn’t really seen him for a couple days, so to see him in uniform and upright was good news.

But I think, from the Penguins’ perspective, the reality is they understand there is an injury here, it might take a little bit longer than anyone wants it to. I don’t know anything about the timetable or anything like that. Ironically enough, I’m actually going to be with Dan Muse later today to record our show, so there’s a possibility there’s going to be a little bit more information that comes from that.

As far as the status of Sidney Crosby, I do think there’s an expectation that he won’t be in the Penguins lineup, but I’m probably stating the obvious. I don’t think there’s a necessary “panic” that it could potentially be the remainder of the regular season, or anything like that.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…