Crosby Might be Back Soon, but Who Will he Play With?

For those of you that live under a rock, it was announced today that Penguins All-Star Center and captain Sidney Crosby was cleared for contact today after missing the last few months with returning concussion like symptoms.

I'll pause so all of Pittsburgh can celebrate and scream for a moment.

All right. This is fantastic news for both the Penguins and the NHL. Arguably the best player in the league, Crosby hasn't really played since January 2011 (again, for you rock living people). Before suffering his concussion, Crosby was putting up points at a ridiculous pace at roughly 1.6 points per game. Extrapolate that over an entire 82 game season, and he potentially could have scored 131 points.

If you're new to hockey, that many points is good. Really good.

Anyways, fast forward past all the drama and the "Will Crosby retire? Is he ever coming back???? Is Crosby a vampire??? (no, he's a Ferrari.)" and such, Crosby made a return earlier this season, only to be thwarted by another hit in a game against Boston. Fast forward a few months later, and here we are. Sid's been cleared for contact, and at the earliest he could play this Sunday (don't get your hopes up).

But um, the Penguins are something like 20-4-1 since that awful losing streak a few weeks ago, so where is Crosby going to fit? The Neal-Malkin-Kunitz line needs to stay in tact. They need to play together for the rest of forever. That is a fact. What about moving Jordan Staal back down to the third line? I'm sure he's getting sick of that, though.

WAIT. I have an idea. What if, (drumroll, please), what if you put Crosby and Staal on a line together? Staal has really stepped up his offense this season since he's been given the opportunity. What if there was a Staal-Crosby-Dupuis (or Sullivan) line? The Penguins have a plethora of third line centers, and Staal clearly deserves to play a more expanded role than that.

But hey, I'm just a random guy behind a computer, so I don't know much, that's just my opinion. What I do know, however, is if Crosby is back and completely healthy come playoff time, the rest of the league might end up pissing their pants.