Crosby confirmed he received the final clearance to play Wednesday morning from the upper-body injury that caused the 37-year-old center to miss the Pittsburgh Penguins’ last two games prior to his arrival here Sunday. The ailment had improved enough to the point he’d already expected to play two days ago.
“Yeah, I’m playing,” he said. “I think it’ll be something that I’ll have a better idea of how it feels once I get into the flow of the game, as far as knowing what I can do out there. But I feel really good, really confident going into it. That’s the biggest part. Mentally, I feel really good about it.
“I haven’t played in a while (Feb. 4), so it’s nice to get out there. There’s worse places to have a morning skate than at the Bell Centre in a situation like this. I mean, this building, there’s a certain feel to it, with so much history. It’s just a hockey feel.”
The tournament, which features Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States, runs through Feb. 20 in Montreal and Boston. It is the first best-on best competition featuing NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey 2016, and as such has been highly anticipated by the Canada players, including McDavid, who never has been part of a best-on-best international tournament at this level.
