NEW YORK — Sidney Crosby says the right wrist that bothered him last season is feeling good as the Pittsburgh Penguins and the rest of the NHL get ready to open training camp next week.
"It definitely feels good now and this summer it’s been good, it’s reacted well to everything so I’m happy with that," Crosby said, referring to injections he got in the wrist.
At the league and Players’ Association’s media tour, Crosby expressed relief that he and team doctors chose not to do surgery.
"It wouldn’t have been too fun to deal with that, that’s for sure," he said. "I wouldn’t have been able to really train to get ready for the season. I think if I would’ve done it I still would’ve been ready for the start of the season, but it would’ve been pretty much cramming to get ready."
The Penguins announced in mid-July that Crosby would not have surgery on his wrist, not long after a report surfaced saying he would.
Crosby won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP with 36 goals and 68 assists for a league-leading 104 points. He had just one goal and eight assists in 13 playoff games.
Now a few months removed from that and feeling healthy, the 27-year-old Cole Harbour, N.S., native said he didn’t know just how much the wrist injury hampered his production.
"It’s hard to really put a measurement on that," Crosby said. "I just probably was a little bit limited faceoff-wise sometimes and that kind of thing. I think once you’re playing with something for a pretty extended period of time, you don’t really know the difference."
