(Photo by Gene J. Puskar/AP)

Penguins fans have known and loved Sidney Crosby as their team’s captain, ever since the honour was bestowed upon him at the age of 19.

But perhaps far fewer fans know of an instance where some within the Penguins locker room thought that maybe someone else should be wearing the C. 

Crosby’s scary concussion history is well chronicled, and we not only as Penguins fans, but hockey fans were robbed of some of the greatest hockey we would have ever seen. 

Crosby’s concussion troubles kept him out of the lineup during the prime of his career. He played just 41 games in 2010-11, 22 in 2011-12, and 36 in 2012-13. 

Setting aside what could have been if prime Sid had been able to take the ice in 82 games all three seasons, the Penguins not only had to account for a massive hole in their lineup, but in their leadership as well. 

Crosby’s injury had perhaps provided some sort of dark rallying cry for the team, but not being able to play on the ice, there was only so much the captain could do. 

It was a difficult time for the organization, the players, and the fans. Crosby’s health and ability to play in the future was in jeopardy. It was unknown if he could ever play consistently again, let alone return to being the dominant force he was in the NHL. 

Times were rather tense, not just for fans, but for those in the locker room as well. Some players reportedly thought that Crosby was perhaps much healthier, or at least able to be seen publicly, then he and/or the team was letting on. 

Dejan Kovacevic, of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review at the time, wrote: 

“A few, certainly not all, of Crosby’s teammates are of the mind that he’s been symptom-free for a while, though they have no medical basis for that. Some think he should be playing. Some simply think he should be doing more to communicate, or at least be as visible as concussed defenseman Kris Letang.”

Enter the idea that some players in the locker room had at the time: name someone else as temporary captain. 

While some teams are much more familiar with having no captain, the Penguins have been amongst the most common teams in the league with a captain. The last time the Penguins iced a team with no one wearing the C on their sweater was the 1972-73 season. 

Still, Crosby’s absence from the ice made some players feel that maybe the team should name someone else as the temporary captain while he was out. 

This whole ordeal came to a head as the Penguins were experiencing a lengthy losing streak, and as in many cases where teams are on losing streaks, issues come up and drama gets stirred. 

Eventually, a meeting between several veteran players on the team took place. As Josh Yohe, Penguins writer for The Athletic, tells the story: 

“Crosby was still out with the concussion and had been out for the better part of a year. There was a now infamous meeting in the Penguins’ locker room. On one side stood Brooks Orpik, Jordan Staal, Craig Adams and Matt Cooke. Those four were exploring the possibility of naming someone else team captain until Crosby came back. On the other side of the debate were Marc-Andre Fleury, Malkin, Pascal Dupuis and Arron Asham. A rather heated discussion broke out. At the end, Malkin made his point clear: ‘Guys. Sid is the f****** captain.’ Then he left the room. And the conversation was over.”

Evgeni Malkin was Sid’s biggest defender during that meeting, and it’s said that once Malkin made his point very clear, the conversation around the Penguins naming anyone else captain, even if temporary, was over. 

In response to the news breaking of a rift within the team, the Penguins stepped onto the ice for a morning practice a few days later all wearing the letter C on their jersey, made with tape. 

Interestingly enough, Brooks Orpik, one of the players said to be open to the idea of a new captain, said shortly after in January of 2012, “(Crosby’s place on the team) has never been in question, not in this room. 

“Sid will be our captain until he’s retired,” he added. 

The optics of stripping the captaincy away from an injured Sidney Crosby would have been bad enough, especially amidst the frustrating campaign that the 2011-12 season was.

Whether the new captain was Malkin, or somebody from the opposing side like Orpik or Staal (all three were serving as alternate captains that season), they would have been in the wrath of fans who would have been against taking the C away from an injured Sid, even if it was temporary. 

It’s interesting, but perhaps not all too surprising, that those who stood in favor of Crosby in general far outlasted any players who didn’t. Pascal Dupuis played until health problems forced him to retire in 2016. Marc-Andre Fleury was a Penguin until the 2017 Expansion Draft, and Evgeni Malkin is of course still here in Pittsburgh.

Aaron Asham would be the only exception. After the 2011-12 season, he played in New York for the Rangers until his time in the NHL ended in 2014. 

Meanwhile, Cooke left as a free agent in 2012, and Orpik followed suit in 2014. Adams retired after the 2014-15 season. Staal was traded after the 2011-12 season. Adams would last the longest, retiring as a Penguin after the 2014-15 season.

Crosby, as we all know, would be able to successfully return to his old self, and led the Penguins to back to back Stanley Cups as Pittsburgh’s captain.