The UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex was eerily quiet Monday a few minutes after 11 a.m., its ice surface empty except for an emptied bag of pucks, when Penguins captain Sidney Crosby gave his familiar head nod hello to a few team staffers and hit the ice for practice.
No longer was Crosby wearing a yellow, non-contact jersey. Just a black one. And an ear-to-ear smile, as he warmed up with a few laps while slapping a puck in the air with his stick.
The concussion issues that Crosby has been battling to put behind him are apparently in the rearview mirror. Enough, anyway, to go all-out at practice. His status remains "day-to-day," but even coach Mike Sullivan refused to rule him out for Tuesday's game.
"Going out there today, being able to go through a regular practice, it means you're headed in the right direction," Crosby said. "It's a little easier to stay motivated and stay upbeat about it."
Crosby's return could soon ease the strain on everyone, too.
Without Crosby in the lineup _ he was concussed Oct. 7 and hasn't played in a game since _ the Penguins are averaging 2.00 goals per game. Only one NHL team, the New Jersey Devils at 1.60, have been more inept offensively.
Furthermore, Crosby's absence has changed how teams defend the Penguins. No longer do they need to worry about Crosby's line, Evgeni Malkin's line and the HBK line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel.
Teams have regularly been deploying their first or second defense pairings against the HBK line, one of the reasons it hasn't registered a five-on-five goal in six games. Now, one of those three lines will see bottom-pairing defenders, and they'd be right to start licking their lips.
"It makes it a lot easier on everybody," Chris Kunitz said. "(Crosby) comes in and plays top minutes against the other team's top pair and pushes everybody back down.
"That's one of our strengths when we're healthy: We have such depth and guys that can attack that second, third, fourth or fifth defenseman. That makes it tough on their guys. A lot of teams don't have the depth at center that we do. When Sid comes back in, it just makes it that much easier on everybody else."
Monday's workout was not an easy one. Crosby skated plenty and several times battled with defenseman Trevor Daley in front of the net during two-on-two drills.
During line rushes, Crosby worked with Scott Wilson at left wing and Patrick Hornqvist to his right. Crosby and Hornqvist have been together plenty. Wilson is adept at smashing one-timers, something that should mesh well with Crosby's ability to create.
"All the other teams are trying to match their best defenseman with (Crosby) and Geno whenever those guys are out there," Wilson said. "You can't think about that too much. You just have to play the game that you bring to the table."
Never one to shy away from watching hockey on his nights off, Crosby kept tabs on how his teammates fared. One of his biggest takeaways _ and he's done this before when he's been out of the lineup for extended stretches _ was just how fine the line was between bad and good.
"The details that you know as a player when you're in the game, you know that when you're watching that, it's so clear," Crosby said. "There's only so much separating each team."
In his earlier concussion days, Crosby had issues with his peripheral vision. Not so this time. There's been no recurrence of symptoms, no major setbacks. There has been a few more questions and a few more tests this time around, Crosby said, but he believes they're there to properly pass a player on to the next stage of return-to-play protocol.
After a couple weeks of skating on his own, Crosby took a significant step forward by joining his teammates today, and they couldn't be happier about it.
Perhaps Crosby can wake his Penguins from a slumber that included some serious struggles last week against the Canadiens, Sharks and Predators, the lone exception being a third period comeback Thursday against San Jose.
"He's the best player in the world," Hagelin said. "Any time you can put him on the ice, it's going to be difficult for the other team to match that. We're happy to have him back. We need to get rolling here."
