On Friday Bob McCown a radio guy up in Toronto said about Sidney Crosby: “Members of his family I’ve been told have suggested to Sid or maybe talking to Sid or trying to encourage Sid to consider retirement” he said that it was not Sid’s parents, and that it was just a member of his family. This was so carefully worded that it could have meant some lost relative of Sid that he never met said to the radio host that maybe Sid should consider retirement. It was not worth mentioning just another radio “Mc-Clown” trying to make something of nothing.
Then over the weekend Sid’s agent Pat Brisson came out and refuted the story saying “This report is baseless, at no time has retirement ever been discussed.” This brought out Sid’s father Troy, on ESPN Saturday, who said when asked if they were prodding Sid into retirement: “Not at all, we’re just trying to get him healthy again, however long that takes, that’s how long it’s going to take.”
This morning Sid laced up the skates, skated around for a few minutes and headed to the locker room for a media session. During the media session Sid reported that “I’ve had some good days here the last few, and I was able to get on a bike and exercise a bit. I didn’t have any symptoms doing that. I was given the opportunity to skate, the doctors said I could give it a try and see how I feel. So I did that today, and we’ll see moving forward how it goes.”
What everyone is wondering is if this 15 minute skate and media session was done just to quell these baseless rumors or if it was actually a schedule that Sidney is on. A question that none in the media was willing to ask. They did manage to ask if Sid ever considered retirement to which Sid responded with a definite “No”
While all of the Pittsburgh Penguins fans are hoping for Sid to return this season, many had written him off. For the season that is, not his career. Now with Sid taking to the ice for what was or was not a media stunt, expectations are up for his return this season. Hopefully these renewed expectations from the media and fans will not convince Sid to return to the ice before he is ready. If he needs to skip one playoff season for the betterment of his career then so be it.
Sid was asked if he thought he’d be playing again this season and his reply was “I have no clue. I’m not thinking too far ahead as far as a time frame. I just want to get better. This is part of the way to do that. I’m just kind of taking that step and seeing how it goes.”
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