One aspect of Hextall's past that Crosby is well aware of is his tenure as general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, a position Hextall held from May 7, 2014, until he was fired Nov. 26, 2018, and replaced by Chuck Fletcher.
"It's funny when you think about it," Crosby said. "You probably don't ever anticipate that, but at the same time I think you find yourself saying that a lot in hockey. It finds a way of kind of bringing people together in different circumstances. In this case, it's not any different.
"You think about rivalries and players getting traded and things like that, how many times you see things like this happen. So it's funny to think about now, but looking back you probably wouldn't have expected this."
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan also doesn't have a previous connection to Hextall. Sullivan said he has a long-standing relationship with Burke and looks forward to building a similar one with the new general manager. Burke is replacing Jim Rutherford, who resigned Jan. 27.
Since then, three games against the New Jersey Devils were postponed because of NHL COVID-19 protocol and their injury list continued to expand. The Penguins play at the New York Islanders on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN360, SNP, MSG+, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV), their first game since a 4-3 loss at the Islanders on Saturday.
"I think there's so much going on just from an
could make his season debut soon after having offseason surgery on his left shoulder, but forward Jared McCann is considered week to week after initially being listed as day to day because of a lower-body injury sustained Saturday.
The rest of the injury list includes forward Evan Rodrigues (lower body), and defensemen Brian Dumoulin (lower body), Juuso Riikola (upper body) and
Zach Trotman
(knee).
Crosby said the players' focus has been on figuring out how to play well despite the injuries, and that remains the case with Burke and Hextall on board.
"With all the other things we have kind of going on, I think we had a lot to focus on," Crosby said. "I think our mindset, our mentality, has just been on playing games and making sure we're getting better."
