{"id":511884,"date":"2026-03-19T19:12:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/511884\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T19:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:12:40","slug":"sidney-crosby-explains-punch-on-andrei-svechnikov-as-penguins-fall-in-ot-to-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/511884\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Crosby explains punch on Andrei Svechnikov as Penguins fall in OT to Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> saw Sidney Crosby return from injury with a goal, but his night also featured a controversial moment as he punched Andrei Svechnikov during a heated sequence in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The incident came in the second period and added tension to an already chaotic game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just was grabbing my stick\u2026 I don\u2019t know what he expects me to do if he\u2019s holding on my stick for that long,\u201d Crosby<\/a> told Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports. \u201cPlus, he slashed me after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Crosby confirmed his return for the Penguins<\/a>, the captain logged over 18 minutes and added an assist to his goal in his first game back after missing 11 games with a Grade 2 MCL sprain suffered at the 2026 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Crosby addresses physical exchange in emotional return<\/p>\n

The altercation came during a second-period battle with Svechnikov, where repeated stick contact led Crosby to throw a punch, followed by a slash from Svechnikov that hit near his previously injured knee.<\/p>\n

\"Sidney<\/p>\n

Sidney Crosby #87 of the Penguins talks to the referee during the game. Brett Holmes\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Both players were penalized, and Crosby later dismissed any notion that the Hurricanes forward was targeting his injury. \u201cNo, no. You know, he does that a lot regardless,\u201d he said, downplaying the incident despite its intensity.<\/p>\n

\"NY<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

NY Rangers exposed in loss to Devils as captain J.T. Miller points to early struggles<\/p>\n

<\/a>Hurricanes outlast Penguins in high-scoring finish<\/p>\n

The game turned into a back-and-forth battle, with Erik Karlsson and Bryan Rust contributing for Pittsburgh as Carolina responded to force overtime. Sean Walker scored the winner with 28.3 seconds left in OT. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to win that game,\u201d Crosby said after the loss.<\/p>\n

SurveyWas Sidney Crosby justified in punching Andrei Svechnikov?<\/p>\n

Was Sidney Crosby justified in punching Andrei Svechnikov?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Penguins saw Sidney Crosby return from injury with a goal, but his night also featured a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5107],"tags":[194,29,5176,5,195,4,100,768],"class_list":{"0":"post-511884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-carolinahurricanes","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-hurricanes","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","15":"tag-sidney-crosby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116257433963583493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511884","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=511884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}