Crosby’s return marked by secrecy

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Look at your right hand. Close your eyes. Do you know where it is? Are you certain?

For months, Sidney Crosby was not.

While the rest of his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates spent the summer resting, working on their golf game and trying to get over a seven-game loss to Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs, the game’s best player spent it searching for a way back to normalcy.

Two head shots within a week of each other last January ended the former MVP’s season, put his career in jeopardy and may have started a culture change in a sport where toughness and “playing through it” are among the most prized commodities.

Entering his seventh NHL season, the 24-year-old cornerstone didn’t set out to be the most public case study on the mysterious and sometimes mysteriously lingering effects of concussions. He simply wanted to feel better and get back to doing what he loved.

The road back has been more arduous than he ever possibly imagined when he was scratched out of the lineup following a game against Tampa Bay on Jan. 5 after experiencing what he’s since described as “fogginess.”

Months of rest, of tests, of travel, of quietly — and not so quietly — refuting what his camp has deemed as misinformation about his condition, his health, his future have followed.

The organization did its best to give Crosby some space. Coach Dan Bylsma and general manager Ray Shero checked in occasionally. Teammates, both old and new, would text or call to talk about anything and everything but the state of Crosby’s head.

“I figured he was getting enough of it from everywhere else,” Penguins forward Jordan Staal said. “All that matters to us really is that he’s healthy. All that stuff you thought you heard, I didn’t pay any attention to it.”