Team Canada and the Pittsburgh Penguins were left holding their collective breath after Wednesday’s quarterfinal round at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Sidney Crosby, captain of both teams, appeared to injure his right leg during the second period of Canada’s 3-2 overtime comeback victory. The 38-year-old center tried to take one stride on the injured leg and immediately returned to Canada’s bench, and then departed down the tunnel. He did not return and was ruled out with a lower-body injury.
While Crosby took a couple of big hits in the period, the one that looked to do the most damage came from Czech defenseman Radko Gudas. As Gudas stepped up to hit Crosby, the latter seemed to try to duck out of the contact, which put his legs in an awkward bind as Gudas fell on top of him.
“You just rarely see it, and so for him, something definitely went wrong,” head coach Jon Cooper told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan postgame. “But he just thought he wasn’t in a position to help the team for the rest of the night. And we’ll reevaluate after that.”
While Crosby could no longer aid in the team’s comeback efforts against the Czechs on the ice, he used his voice in the locker room to push his teammates forward.
“He couldn’t come out for the third, but he did address the players, and I think that was a big thing coming in,” Cooper said. “If we lose this game, we didn’t want this to be Sid’s last game at this Olympics. So it was big motivator for the guys coming out.”
Through four games, Crosby has notched six points (2g, 4a), which is tied with Nathan MacKinnon for third on the team behind just Connor McDavid (11) and Macklin Celebrini (9). Crosby has centered a dominant “third” line for the Canadians, playing with Wednesday’s overtime hero, Mitch Marner, and veteran winger Mark Stone.
Crosby skated just 5:55 of total ice time before leaving the game, firing two shots on goal. With the win, Canada moves on to the semifinals to face Finland on Friday, a game that Cooper was unsure Crosby would be ready to play in.
“Right now, I don’t know,” Cooper told Kaplan. “I don’t even have my poker face on either, because I honestly don’t know.”
According to Kaplan, Crosby is scheduled to undergo imaging to determine the severity of his injury. The Canadians are expected to have an update on his status as soon as Thursday, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.
Crosby’s potential to miss time with the injury would obviously also heavily impact the Penguins, who currently sit second in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division with a 29-25-12 record. The veteran pivot leads the team in scoring with 59 points (27g, 32a) in 56 games. He has not missed significant time due to injury in any of the last three seasons.
