{"id":463604,"date":"2026-02-19T17:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463604\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:09:12","slug":"what-connor-mcdavid-said-about-void-left-by-crosbys-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/463604\/","title":{"rendered":"What Connor McDavid said about void left by Crosby’s injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team Canada hasn’t lost a best-on-best hockey game at the Winter Olympics in two decades, and they were just barely able to keep that streak alive in a thrilling OT quarterfinal win over Team Czechia<\/a> in Milan on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Trailing late in the third period after a controversial goal made it 3-2 Czechia<\/a>, Nick Suzuki tied the score on a terrific individual effort before Mitch Marner called game with an all-timer in the extra frame to send Canada into the semifinal against Finland on Friday.<\/p>\n

The key storyline ahead of that contest is the health of Sidney Crosby. Canada’s captain was injured<\/a> in the 4-3 victory, and although he hasn’t been ruled out for Friday, the ailment does not look good. Head coach Jon Cooper said that Crosby is considered day-to-day after sustaining a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a> has been Canada’s best player throughout the Olympics and will almost certainly wear the \u2018C’ if Crosby is unable to suit up on Friday. He spoke about what<\/a> No. 87 means to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Sid is just himself, and it doesn\u2019t need to be anything more or less. I think everybody\u2019s different in their own way. Obviously, everybody goes about things differently. That being said, Sid\u2019s an unbelievable leader, and everybody here watches him and is trying to learn off him,\u201d the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> captain said, per The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.<\/p>\n

No. 97 continued: \u201cWe\u2019ve got lots of guys that lead. That\u2019s the beauty of this team. Everybody in that room is a leader in their room. That won\u2019t be an issue. He\u2019s Sidney Crosby. He\u2019s gonna have a big influence, no matter what. In the lineup, not in the lineup, he\u2019s gonna have a big influence. That\u2019s what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid obvious choice to wear \u2018C’ if Sidney Crosby out<\/p>\n

If Crosby is unable to play on Friday, international rules dictate that a player has to wear the \u2018C’ on his sweater. With 11 points in four games and in the midst of some of the best hockey of his career, McDavid is the easy choice.<\/p>\n

He was the first player on the ice for practice on Thursday, and he has led by example throughout the tourney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched it grow,\u201d Cooper said of McDavid\u2019s leadership qualities, per LeBrun. \u201cYou know, you get to that 4 Nations tournament, and I think everybody was looking to Sid in that tournament. Guys like (Drew) Doughty and (Brad) Marchand, the guys that have been there for a number of years were the more vocal guys who stepped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m seeing much more out of the group now, especially Connor. I think he\u2019s much more \u2014 not that he wasn\u2019t comfortable, but I think there was a lot of uncertainty, especially because we hadn\u2019t seen best on best and this group hadn\u2019t been together for so long. In this tournament, he\u2019s been fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid has dominated along with teen phenom Macklin Celebrini and fellow superstar Nathan MacKinnon \u2014 in the limited time that the trio has been together \u2014 and it should be obvious to keep them together for the rest of the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Canadians across the country will be waiting impatiently for an update on Crosby ahead of another critical game against a tough Finland team. But if he can’t go, the group will be in good hands led by the best player in the world in McDavid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Canada hasn’t lost a best-on-best hockey game at the Winter Olympics in two decades, and they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[155,198,146,5300,5,4,24,2602,100,768],"class_list":{"0":"post-463604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-connor-mcdavid","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-oilers","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","17":"tag-sidney-crosby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116098405589671644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}