{"id":468277,"date":"2026-02-23T15:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468277\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:53:20","slug":"sidney-crosbys-nhl-career-deserves-a-better-ending-than-his-olympic-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468277\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Crosby\u2019s NHL career deserves a better ending than his Olympic career"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins, along with the rest of North America, gathered to watch the Olympic men\u2019s gold medal game on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Before the team practiced at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, they saw Team USA\u2019s triumph, Team Canada\u2019s monumental disappointment and a remarkable celebration of great hockey. They marveled at the drama-filled final few days in Milan.<\/p>\n

They saw the silver medal around Sidney Crosby\u2019s neck and the silver in his hair. Crosby is one of those rare athletes who always seems a little bigger than the game, and his teammates hurt for him when he couldn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us who know him, felt for him,\u201d Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. \u201cI know how much it meant to him, and how much it means to him to play for Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The questions now are many:<\/p>\n

\u2022 How bad is his injury?
\u2022 How close did he come to playing?
\u2022 How crushed was he to miss games in the Olympics?
\u2022 How motivated is he for the rest of the season?
\u2022 When will he play again?<\/p>\n

At various points over the past two weeks, Crosby\u2019s hockey mortality came to mind. Maybe it was when he absorbed a hit from Ond\u0159ej Pal\u00e1t in the second period in the quarterfinals against Czechia. Or maybe it was the next shift, when Radko Gudas went to deliver a high hit on Crosby, who injured his knee as he contorted his body to avoid it. Maybe it was when he skated on one leg to the bench, bent over in pain and hobbled to the dressing room.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it was when he joined his teammates during the medal ceremony Sunday. That was pure Crosby, putting on his uniform \u2014 and even his pads \u2014 to join his teammates in what could be his final Olympics. He received the loudest cheers not only because he\u2019s one of hockey\u2019s most beloved figures, but also because this could have been the end of his international career.<\/p>\n

On the surface, Crosby seems like he\u2019ll play forever. He\u2019s on his way to a 21st straight NHL season of recording a point per game or better. Over the past four seasons, the Penguins have played 300 games. Crosby has participated in 298 of them. He\u2019s seemingly become more durable in his old age.<\/p>\n

Crosby appears to have dodged the worst-case scenario, though we\u2019re awaiting more details. It\u2019s unclear if he\u2019ll be ready to play Thursday when U.S. hero Jack Hughes, down a couple of teeth<\/a>, comes to Pittsburgh with the New Jersey Devils.<\/p>\n

Injuries played a horribly prominent role in the first few seasons of Crosby\u2019s storied career. They threatened to end his playing days prematurely. There was the high ankle sprain that cost him two months in his third season, the knee injury that knocked him out of Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, and most notably and seriously, the concussion that cost him 101 games in 2011 and 2012. It cost him time, yes, but it also made him consider that retirement was an option.<\/p>\n

Since 2012, though, it\u2019s primarily been smooth sailing as we\u2019ve become accustomed to this durable, indomitable version of Crosby.<\/p>\n

That history at least partially explains why the past few days have been so jarring.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s conceivable that Crosby will participate in the 2030 Olympics, it seems unlikely he\u2019d make it to the French Alps Games at age 42. He might not even be playing hockey then. These were supposed to be his final Olympic Games, and they were supposed to end with a third gold medal. His career has, at times, seemed authored by the hockey gods. From ending the first Winter Classic in Buffalo in a shootout to the 2010 Golden Goal to three Stanley Cup championships, everything seems to work out.<\/p>\n

However, this time, it didn\u2019t. He didn\u2019t look right wearing that silver medal. It didn\u2019t feel right that when the Americans finally toppled the mighty Canadian machine, they did so without Team Canada\u2019s backbone in the lineup. Not to take anything away from what Team USA accomplished \u2014 which was absolutely massive \u2014 but Crosby\u2019s absence made it feel a little incomplete. His possible final international chapter didn\u2019t come with a perfect ending.<\/p>\n

All of this brings us back to his day job.<\/p>\n

Crosby\u2019s potentially serious injury scared an entire fan base. It reminded Penguins fans that their captain is human and that his career will someday end, whether Pittsburgh \u2014 or Canada \u2014 wants it to.<\/p>\n

Before leaving the dressing room after Sunday\u2019s practice, one of Crosby\u2019s Penguins teammates told me the captain will be seething because of what happened in Milan, and that he\u2019ll be more motivated than ever to lead the Penguins to playoff glory.<\/p>\n

Crosby has won everything there is to win and doesn\u2019t particularly have anything left to accomplish. His legend is safe. He doesn\u2019t owe the Penguins a thing. They don\u2019t owe him a thing. It\u2019s been a perfect marriage. Still, there is a fire that burns inside of Crosby, and that\u2019s why he remains in the NHL. Make no mistake, Crosby will want his perfect ending in the league, and he has only so many years remaining. That medal is silver. His hair is getting there. And his next goal is silver, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Sidney Crosby, who had to settle for silver at the Olympics, hopes to earn the right to raise the Stanley Cup one more time before his NHL career ends. (Charles LeClaire \/ USA Today via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Penguins GM\/president Kyle Dubas often discusses the urgency to get his team back to the top. This surprising season would indicate that the Penguins are on their way. However, Crosby\u2019s injury, even if short-term, was a reminder that he is human and he is aging.<\/p>\n

It must have destroyed him to miss that game Sunday. At some point, though, his attention will return to the Penguins. If that was his final international appearance, it wasn\u2019t a storybook ending. In Pittsburgh, however, he still has the chance for that perfect ending \u2014 for one more Stanley Cup run.<\/p>\n

A ton of things need to go right for that to happen: The Penguins need to get better fast. Crosby needs to get healthy and stay that way. They need to get some luck. A Cup run this season might be far-fetched, but it seems Dubas is building an impressive team.<\/p>\n

Crosby doesn\u2019t need to win another championship to validate his career. What he does need is a trip back to the playoffs and an opportunity to be healthy and to play. For someone who loves hockey as much as Crosby, the past week was undeniably painful. A return to the postseason, and maybe making one last run in the next few years, will give him the ending he deserves.<\/p>\n

Silver looked funny around his neck, but it looks natural when he raises it over his head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins, along with the rest of North America, gathered to watch the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-468277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116120755863879509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468277","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=468277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}