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Crosby, who has been sidelined since undergoing wrist surgery on Sep. 8, participated in a full capacity at Penguins practice on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena. He centered the top line with Jake Guentzel and Evan Rodrigues, and practiced on the first power-play unit, which are incredibly positive signs.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said that while they are going to take each day as it comes, they think Crosby is getting "real close" to joining the lineup. The Penguins continue their homestand on Thursday versus Calgary and Saturday versus New Jersey.
"We'll see how he responds," Sullivan said. "We'll listen to the medical staff and we'll make decisions accordingly. But we're really encouraged with his progress."
Crosby first joined Penguins practice for an optional morning skate on Oct. 9, and has been a more consistent participant as of late, as today marked his fourth time in a row skating with his teammates after having two scheduled days off the ice.
During Monday's practice, he centered Jason Zucker and Danton Heinen on a line that went second in rushes. Crosby also did a number of reps on the second power-play unit. Today was certainly a step up from that, with Sullivan saying that being able to plug Crosby into his normal spots changes the outlook of their team.
"It's certainly exciting for us to watch the practice, watch our team," Sullivan said. "You can see the reaction even with our own players. We just have more of a jump in our step. He has that influence. I think our team gets excited when he's participating in the way he is right now."
Crosby said recently that he needed to be able to manage taking faceoffs, lift sticks, push, shove and just generally go up against guys - anything that involved force - before being ready for game action.
Crosby is certainly doing everything in his power to get comfortable in those areas, as he did battle drills with Kasper Bjorkqvist before working on faceoffs with Brian Boyle in Tuesday's optional skate. Crosby has also spent a lot of time working on his own with skills coach Ty Hennes before joining his teammates.
"He's really coming along," Casey DeSmith said. "He's been working hard. He's been putting in a lot of hours trying to get back into form. Hopefully he'll be back soon."
Here is the workflow the Penguins used…
Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues
Zucker-O'Connor-Kapanen
Aston-Reese-Blueger-McGinn
Heinen-Boyle-Simon (Lafferty rotated in)
Dumoulin-Marino
Matheson-Ruhwedel
Pettersson-Friedman (Riikola rotated in)
