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Crosby left Canada's Olympic hockey quarterfinal game during the second period with an apparent injury and did not return. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
MILAN — You know Sidney Crosby is genuinely hurt and unable to play when Canada’s strong-minded and still-a-superstar captain doesn’t come out for the third period of a win-or-go-home quarterfinal game in the Olympics.
“You just rarely see it,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said of Crosby, the two-time Olympic gold medalist. “For him, something definitely went wrong, but he just thought he wasn’t in a position to help the team the rest of the night.”
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After Crosby addressed the team during the second intermission of Wednesday’s quarterfinal against the Czech Republic, Canada actually fell behind 3-2 on Ondrej Palat’s go-ahead goal in the third before Nick Suzuki forced overtime with a late-tying goal. Mitch Marner executed his latest overtime heroics with the biggest goal of his hockey career.
Marner also scored in overtime against Sweden in the 4 Nations Face-Off and assisted on Connor McDavid’s overtime goal over the United States in the 4 Nations final.
Now the question is whether we’ll see Crosby again in these Olympics, either in Friday’s semifinal or in a potential gold medal game Sunday.
Cooper said Crosby will be evaluated after sustaining an injury to his right leg in the second period Wednesday.
“If we lose this game, we didn’t want this to be Sid’s last game of this Olympics,” Cooper said. “So it was a big motivator for the guys coming out.”
Crosby was hurt midway through the period when veteran defenseman Radko Gudas came to finish his check on him between the benches. Crosby tried to duck the hit; his legs split and Gudas seemed to topple over him. His right leg bent awkwardly.
“I honestly haven’t seen it,” Canada’s Tom Wilson said. “Gudy plays the game hard, I know him and I don’t think he’s a guy that ever wants to intentionally injure somebody. I’ll go watch it, but it was a gutsy effort by those guys. Hopefully Sid is OK.”
Gudas said he was just trying to finish his check and hopes Crosby is OK.
Crosby was clearly laboring as he skated into the offensive zone following the collision with Gudas. After being checked again by Gudas and Martin Nečas, Crosby took one stride and immediately showed signs of injury. He skated slowly to the bench, sat there for a few minutes and then slowly made his way to the locker room with a trainer.
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“We just rally around him,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “Hopefully he’s gonna be alright for the next one. But if he’s not, guys gotta step up. That’s just the bottom line. Sucks to see your captain go down and a player of that stature. But what are you gonna do, really?”
The Pittsburgh Penguins star, 38, has two goals and four assists in now parts of four games these Olympics. He has seven goals and nine assists in 17 career games in the Olympics.
“That’s our guy, that’s our leader, Captain Canada,” Seth Jarvis said. “When stuff like that happens, you hate it, but we rallied together, rallied around him. Want to make sure he has a chance to play again, and that’s what we did.”’
“Yeah it’s tough when you lose a guy like that,” Brad Marchand said. “Obviously one of the best ever to play the game. Such a big character on the bench and in the room. Big presence in big moments. But you don’t have a choice, you’ve got to keep going. It was great that the team came together and battled through that adversity tonight. You have to give the Czechs a lot of credit.”
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Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a five-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and the Worst Seats in the House podcast (talknorth.com). He can be found on Instagram and X at @russohockey and Bluesky at @russohockey.bsky.social. Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey
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