The Shocking Truth Behind Sidney Crosby’s Injury That Everyone Missed

There I was, watching what should have been a thrilling Canada-Czechia Olympic showdown, when suddenly the officials—three from the NHL and one from Sweden—turned the ice into a circus ring. You think officiating errors are just minor hiccups? Think again. These blunders didn’t just mess with the flow of the game—they potentially derailed an entire tournament and cast a dark shadow over Sidney Crosby’s season. As Crosby faced scans for a serious right leg injury, replays revealed a flagrant interference missed so blatantly it beggars belief. Imagine Ondraj Palat crashing into Crosby as if he were a linebacker delivering a bone-crushing hit, and yet, no penalty was called. It’s baffling, maddening even, especially when the stakes couldn’t be higher. And if that wasn’t enough, the refs completely overlooked a historic too-many-men-on-the-ice moment when Czechia scored with six players swarming the zone—and celebrated with all six right under the officials’ noses. How do you blow calls like this? Honestly, this quartet should be benched from the rest of this tourney. The fallout? Not just about one controversial game or one star player’s injury, but a broader debate about NHL players risking it all for Olympic glory, and the spectacle of 3-on-3 overtime thrilling fans enough to make us rethink the very fabric of hockey’s overtime rules. Let’s just say, this day on the ice was unforgettable—though not entirely for reasons fans would want. LEARN MORE

Who was officiating the Canada-Czechia Olympic hockey game Wednesday, Jerry Meals?

Actually, it was three NHL officials and a Swedish one, and their incompetence might have altered the course of the tournament, not to mention the Penguins’ promising season.

As of this writing, Sidney Crosby was to undergo imaging for an injury to his right leg. NBC reported there was talk of him re-entering the game, which is encouraging. The replays were concerning.

And here’s the thing: If one of the two main officials had called a ridiculously obvious interference penalty on Ondraj Palat moments earlier, Canada would have been on the power play. Crosby’s injury would have been avoided.

By ridiculously obvious, I mean Palat swooped in like an NFL safety on a puckless and unsuspecting Crosby in the neutral zone and crushed him, sending him careening across the ice and into the boards.

How do you miss that?

Crosby’s a target in the NHL. He’s a target at the Olympics. Where was Tom Wilson when we needed him?

Amazingly, that wasn’t even the biggest officiating blunder of the game. The second would have been historic if Team Canada hadn’t rallied to win in overtime. Somehow, the Floundering Four completely missed the fact that Czechia had six men on the ice when it snapped a 2-2 tie in the third period.

I’m not talking about a sloppy line change that resulted in a borderline too-many-men situation. I’m talking six players attacking the Canadian zone when the Czechs scored. Then, even more unbelievably, six Czechs celebrating the goal along the side boards, right in front of the officials!

How do you miss THAT?

This group should not officiate another game in the tournament.

Afterward, Czechia coach Radim Rulik delivered an all-time ironic rant, saying, “I feel like everyone is afraid to call anything against Canada. We were basically playing against six players.”

No, Radim, you were playing with six players.

Meantime …

• Some will wonder if it’s worth it for NHL players to leave their teams in the middle of the season and risk their health in a high-stakes hockey tournament. It is. Players crave the opportunity to represent their countries. They deserve this opportunity. Injuries happen.

That said, I wouldn’t apply the same logic to the World Baseball Classic. Would you? I mean, are you really hung up on the results of that tournament? Did you even know it was happening?

Don’t get me wrong. Paul Skenes should absolutely play if he wants. I just don’t view the WBC as equivalent to the Olympics. I also wonder if Skenes’ full-season innings count will be impacted by him being forced to ramp all the way up to playoff-level intensity during spring training.

At least the Olympics occur in the middle of the hockey season. Players are already warmed to the task. That isn’t the case in spring training.

• The Crosby injury cast a pall over what was a truly memorable day of hockey. I don’t love the idea of deciding Olympic games via 3-on-3 overtime, but I sure do love the enactment of said idea.

The U.S. and Canada barely survived. The third periods and overtimes of both games were scream-out-loud incredible, to the point where I’d actually love to see this in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

OK, maybe play 10 minutes of 5-on-5, five minutes of 4-on-4 and five minutes of 3-on-3 if the game still hasn’t been decided, and do the same in each subsequent overtime.

That might sound blasphemous. I don’t care. I find myself becoming less of a traditionalist in all sports these days. Entertain me. If you weren’t entertained by three games going to 3-on-3 overtime Wednesday, you don’t have a pulse.

• People seem to think the NHL benefits from this kind of riveting Olympic hockey. I think the opposite. It’s so much better than the NHL product that even good games will look sickly when the season resumes.