Encouraging Video Of Sidney Crosby Surfaces, Still No Return Date (video)

Added on Mar 25, 2011 by John Petit in

NHL

Good news Penguins fans, some video has surfaced of Sidney Crosby, and he looks amazing. The video of Fridays workout shows a highlight-reel move of Crosby going to his backhand and roof a puck past No. 3 goalie Brad Thiessen that found, and exploded, the water bottle sitting atop the net. Unfortunately, there is no expected return date being talked about, but its good to see the 23 year old looking like his old self.

General Manager Ray Shero told NHL.com that they can’t assume anything on when Crosby will be back on the ice. “We’ve never gotten that far at all. From my standpoint or the team, there’s no expectations at all that he’s coming back. He’s skating and that’s another step in his recovery. That’s a good thing, to make him feel better about himself. He’s a world-class athlete, to get that sweat going, he’s making progress. … It’s step by step here, no expectations, no timetable in how he’d be played. That’s down the road.”

In the video below, Crosby can be seen doing stick handling drills, skating around cones, and being fed the puck by Penguins’ strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar. More importantly, he looked to be skating smoothly, focused on the puck, and skating like he did back before he was hit. The word of the tape has spread through Penguins nation, and offered hope to all of them that he would be back soon.

It couldn’t have come at a better time, as they are dealing with a whole mountain of injuries, and another bit of good news came back as well. Mark Letestu, who has been out with an upper body injury, returned to practice. Coach Dan Bylsma didn’t get to see Letestu skate, but he said the words back were encouraging. He said “I do know that he’s progressed — the doctor has upped certain things on and off the ice. And it’s not the same each day. I talked to him before he went on the ice, and he said he was going to try to keep up with Mark Letestu. I talked to Mark Letestu afterward, and Mark said he was trying to keep up with Sid.”

Crosby didn’t talk with the media, and the Penguins have been real careful about when he can talk to the media. Coach Bylsma said “I do know that the doctor is writing a schedule every day, and there have been things that have increased and (Thursday) was almost a day off in his day to day. I do know that I laughed today when Sid said he was going to try to keep up, and Mark said he was trying to keep up.”

Penguins will play the New Jersey Devils tonight at home.

Here is the video: