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Crosby takes two dangerous elbows to the head in a single game.
 

Crosby takes two dangerous elbows to the head in a single game.

Crosby has a rough night.

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

The Pittsburgh Penguins will probably have a complaint or two filed with the National Hockey League by the time you read this article.

On Saturday night the Penguins were facing off against the Ottawa Senators and it was a pretty poor night all around for the Penguins organization. The team learned earlier that day that veteran forward Patric Hornqvist had suffered yet another "upper body injury" and would be out of the line up for at least the short term and in the game itself they saw their captain, Sidney Crosby, get roughed up pretty good. 

The Senators showed Crosby no leniency on Saturday night due to his status as a star in the league and if anything it seemed like they may have in fact been targeting the Penguins star, a move that would honestly come as very little surprise. When you consider that Crosby is arguably the most impactful player on both sides of the ice in this game it makes sense that the Sens would go after him, but the tactics they used were questionable to be sure.

Crosby was the victim of a pair of rather ugly looking elbows from the Senators over the course of the game but only one of them was called as a penalty by the NHL officials on the ice. The one they missed came courtesy of young Ottawa Senators center Colin White when the two men were engaged in a battle, or race, for the puck along the boards. When Crosby caught up to White and attempted to make a play, the 22 year old Sens forward drove his right elbow back and up into the face of Crosby, leaving the Penguins captain reeling from the impact.

Now I'm fairly confident that based on Crosby's reaction he did a pretty good job of selling here, and perhaps that is why there is no call, but even with the histrionics from Crosby it's quite clear that he did get elbowed in the face by White. That wasn't the end of it however as Crosby would later go on to take another elbow, this time from veteran forward Zack Smith. If I had to judge the two plays I would say the elbow from Smith looked considerably more dangerous, although this one was called by the officials and Smith was awarded a 2 minute minor on the play. 

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