The penguins’ two star players have been battling injuries throughout last season and this off season. Malkin’s injury is easier to gauge on when his comeback will happen since it’s his knee; but Crosby has the rather elusive concussion problems.
Sources have been saying that Crosby is not going to be ready for the 2011-2012 season. Again, it’s impossible to tell how reliable those three sources are, but Josh Rimer is a producer for a well-known hockey radio show so it probably wouldn’t behoove him to throw out a rumor without any basis.
Now, the regular season is still just a shade under two months away, so there’s always the possibility that Crosby will make more progress. The hope was that Crosby would be healthy enough for training camp so that he could get acquainted with new teammates such as James Neal and Steve Sullivan, but that might not happen now.
The Penguins could probably accept the possibility of Crosby missing a portion of this regular season if it means taking every precaution to make sure that they’re doing what is best for the still very young star’s future. Again, it’s unclear if this rumor will come to fruition, but it would be a sad situation if Crosby really did miss even more games that “count.” If Crosby and Malkin both miss a good portion of the season, I suspect that the Penguins will have to make more changes and maybe even a season without a post season…