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Here’s your daily Sidney Crosby update

Sidney Crosby

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby takes part in hockey practice in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, April 13, 2011. Crosby has not been cleared to play in tonight’s first-round NHL playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

The Pittsburgh Penguins returned to practice this afternoon at the Consol Energy Center, a practice attended by numerous national media outlets.

Why all the attention, you ask?

Oh, right. That Crosby guy.

Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune reports that media members were huddled around Sidney Crosby’s locker following practice in the hope of gleaning information about his potential return. “Crosby appeared irritated at a group of reporters, gathered at his locker stall waiting for him to address his status,” Rossi writes. “Later, though, he jovially chatted up a couple of the national reporters.”

Seems like everybody wants to know when No. 87 will return to action...but No. 87 isn’t offering much in the way of information. Neither are the Penguins, though GM Ray Shero shot down rumors that the Mark Letestu-to-Columbus trade paved the way for Crosby to play Friday. Shero told Rossi on Tuesday night the move “has nothing to do with Sid.”

One interesting note: Rossi states that “the only thing I’ve heard from people close to this situation is that the least ideal situation is for Crosby to return in a back-to-back games situation.” Which makes sense -- the organization would probably like a day off following Crosby’s debut to monitor his health.

The alternative is dicey. For example: If the Pens were to play Crosby on Friday against Dallas then sit him Saturday against Carolina solely for precautionary reasons (which is a fairly logical approach), they’d likely be bombarded with questions and speculation. I imagine the line of questioning would look something like this:

“Why is Crosby not playing tonight? Was it his decision to sit out, or the club’s? Did he show any ill-effects from last night? If he did, what were they? If he didn’t, why isn’t he playing tonight? Could he have played if he checked out okay?”

Yeah, sounds like a real headache. Best to avoid it.

Yesterday, we speculated which would be Crosby’s first game back. Now I’m starting to seriously think it might be the Tuesday, Nov. 15 game at home against Colorado.