A look inside the team, the issues and the questions

It would make sense, of course.

When a guy’s medical records from a 13-month period look like Sidney Crosby’s do, making a few adjustments might seem prudent.

Might seem, for example, like a good time to spend some more time out on the perimeter.

There’s more time and space available there, usually, and for good reason: The farther most players get from the net, the less likely they are to be seriously involved in scoring plays.

That means opponents have fewer opportunities, and less incentive, to administer the kind of hits — be they delivered by a shoulder, a stick, an elbow of a forearm — that can lead to a guy consulting specialists in disciplines he didn’t know existed a day earlier.

You know, like neurological surgeons, clinical psychologists, otoneurologists and chiropractic neurologists.

Crosby, who has been diagnosed with at least one concussion and a soft-tissue neck injury since the start of 2011, has been examined and/or treated by men representing all of those fields and figures to spend more quality time with medical professionals before getting clearance to resume participating in games.

But regardless of when he finally receives approval from his SWAT team of experts to resume playing — and there is an undercurrent of optimism that Crosby’s return isn’t as far off as many think — one thing seems fairly certain: Crosby is likely to play the game the way he always has. The way he always will.

That means going to the net like he means it, skirmishing along the boards when the situation demands it, absorbing hits to make a play and playing the body to prevent opposing players from making one.

Not the best way to minimize the chances of being injured again, perhaps, but it’s how Crosby does his job.

And those who know him well, such as Toronto winger Colby Armstrong — a close friend and former linemate — find it unthinkable that Crosby would make any significant changes.

“I don’t think he ever will,” Armstrong said. “If you told him he couldn’t play the right way, the way he wanted to play, I don’t know if he would play.

“He’s that competitive, and he loves the game that much.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207982-61-0.stm?cmpid=penguins.xml#ixzz1lWJ0i42o