{"id":483728,"date":"2026-02-18T12:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=483728"},"modified":"2026-02-18T15:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:04:13","slug":"team-canada-versus-team-czechia-at-olympics-we-have-a-sidney-crosby-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/18\/team-canada-versus-team-czechia-at-olympics-we-have-a-sidney-crosby-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada versus Team Czechia at Olympics, We Have a Sidney Crosby Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It does look like <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/17\/2026-mliano-cortina-winter-olympics-quarterfinals-mens-ice-hockey-predictions-canada-czechia\/\" target=\"_self\">Canada has some unfortunate news from the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics<\/a> in the quarterfinal matchup against Team Czechia. <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/crosbsi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sidney Crosby<\/a> left the game with an injury, likely something of the lower-body variety. He had come together with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gudasra01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Radko Gudas<\/a> a couple of times on one sequence. The result was Crosby soon made his way to the Canadian locker room. He was moving very cautiously in doing so. So, let&#8217;s discuss.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crosby<\/a> did not come out for the third period, and will not return to the game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Crosby is leaving the bench, and going back to the room<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/2024163466232099244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 18, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Team Canada Injury to Captain Sidney Crosby<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Crosby&#8217;s absence is a huge concern for everyone right now. His line with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stonema01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Stone<\/a> and <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marnemi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mitch Marner<\/a> has been a terrific line that has supported the Team Canada rhythm. Following different lines featuring <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcdavco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor McDavid<\/a> and <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mackina01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> on them, having a Crosby line support them had been clutch throughout the tournament. The trickle down effect is noticeable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>What Does this Mean for Canada<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/suzukni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Suzuki<\/a> and <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/horvabo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bo Horvat<\/a> are their centres, along with McDavid. Crosby is the fourth in their current alignment. Yes, Nathan MacKinnon was playing centre, but we did see him shift up with McDavid and youngster <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/celebma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Macklin Celebrini<\/a>. Head coach Jon Cooper&#8217;s nerves will certainly be tested. This presents a huge challenge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We now know Crosby will not return from injury, at this point. However, Canada will need to elevate its collective play as a result of missing the captain. And the players, you know wearing the Canadian Maple Leaf, they will do whatever it takes to step up. And what better time to do it when the game matters the most. As we stand now, early in the third period of action, the game is tied at 2-2. This will be a great finish, whatever the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It does look like Canada has some unfortunate news from the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in the quarterfinal matchup against Team Czechia. Sidney Crosby left the game with an injury, likely something of the lower-body variety. He had come together with Radko Gudas a couple of times on one sequence. The result was Crosby [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":483734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2963,4547,6671,304,34,4548,2143],"tags":[8208,692,140],"class_list":["post-483728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-international-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-nhl-all-time-best","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-radko-gudas","tag-sidney-crosby"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483728"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483747,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483728\/revisions\/483747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}