MILAN — Canada captain Sidney Crosby will undergo imaging to determine the severity of his lower-body injury, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
Crosby appeared to injure his right leg in the second period of Canada’s come-from-behind 4-3 overtime victory against Czechia in the Olympic hockey quarterfinals. The 38-year-old tried to stay in the game, but he left later in the period and did not return.
He was officially ruled out during the third period with what Hockey Canada called a lower-body injury.
“You just rarely see it, and so for him, something definitely went wrong,” coach Jon Cooper told reporters after the game. “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.”
Crosby, who is also the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain, was bracing for a big check from Czechia defenseman Radko Gudas when he got injured. Crosby labored after that, then got crunched into the boards by both Gudas and Martin Necas.
Crosby returned to the bench, where he was hunched over in pain. He limped off to the locker room as Canada trailed 2-1 — the Canadians’ first deficit of the entire tournament.
Nick Suzuki scored the tying goal late in the third period to keep Canada alive. Mitch Marner went on to score the overtime winner for Canada, marking his first goal of the tournament and one he later said was “probably, hard not to say” the biggest goal of his life.
“[Crosby] 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.”
Gudas, the captain of the Anaheim Ducks, told reporters that he hopes Crosby is OK, and that he was just trying to hold the red line.
Crosby is tied for third on his stacked Canadian team with six points (two goals and four assists) through four games. He is the oldest player on Canada’s roster, and the most decorated — especially after scoring the golden goal in overtime to defeat the United States at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
It is unclear if Crosby will be able to return for Canada’s semifinal on Friday.
“Right now, I don’t know,” Cooper said. “I don’t even have my poker face on either, because I honestly don’t know.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
