Crosby penalty leads to Devils' game winning goal in his return to action.

It was not the return that he would have wanted, but perhaps after such a long layoff it was one that should have been somewhat expected.

On Saturday night the Pittsburgh Penguins welcomed back captain Sidney Crosby after the star forward had missed the entire regular season up until this point due to offseason wrist surgery. It was great to see Crosby back out on the ice for the Penguins but unfortunately his contributions on the evening were not what you would typically expect from the veteran centerman.

Crosby struggled on the faceoff for most of the game and would admit following the game that his timing felt a little off after such a long period of time spent away from the game being played at real speed.

"Conditionally felt alright but timing obviously feels a little off," admitted Crosby in his post game comments.

Even more unfortunate for Crosby however was the fact that his presence on the ice would eventually lead to a New Jersey Devils victory. Crosby was involved in the play that would ultimately determine the outcome of the game, a penalty called against him that would lead to a penalty shot for Devils' forward Jesper Bratt.

Bratt had a pretty good scoring chance against Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry in the third period. Instead of getting the opportunity to capitalize on that scoring chance however Bratt would be shoved off the puck from behind by Crosby, a push that would lead to Bratt crashing into the Penguins net. A penalty seemed to be the right call on the play, but the officials would award Bratt with a penalty shot instead of sending Crosby to the box for 2 minutes.

Bratt made no mistake on his penalty shot and buried the puck into the Penguins net for the eventual game winner.

Following the game Crosby expressed that he did not like the call on the ice.

"It's too late to do anything about it now," said Crosby. "I think maybe a penalty, you know maybe, but I didn't agree with the call."

The captain wasn't thrilled with the outcome in this one and who can blame him? For his full post game comments check out the clip below.