Sid Practicing @ Southpointe

WOW. We are incredibly lucky because we've got fantastic Friends...

Sid's been practicing, and until now, we've been relying on practice videos from Pens TV and split second video clips on TSN to catch a few glimpses of Sid working on his recovery exercises. Tonight, we've got some awesome photos sent in to us by Friend of The Show Michelle B. who watched the Saint in action at the Iceoplex at Southpointe today. Here's what she had to say:

Sid was practicing in the regular full-contact jersey at the Southpointe today and looked a lot more comfortable on the ice. He participated in all the drills and shot around at the end. There was one point where he slid and looked like he hit the boards and everyone in the audience gasped, but he got back up.

YIKES. If I had been there when he slid into the boards, I likely would have passed out. Thankfully he didn't do any (more) damage. Here are the photos Michelle took - click on them to enlarge:

How many Penguins can you identify in this shot?

This is a close up of Sid that I cropped from the previous photo of the entire team. I thought it might help you find Waldo. ;)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing these with us, Michelle!!! :)

Shelley Anderson of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette online had this to say about Sid's return to full contact practice and that sliding-into-the-boards incident:

"He looked really good," coach Michel Therrien said.

At one point, Crosby and defenseman Kris Letang got tangled and fell to the ice. They slid past the net and into the boards, but not heavily.

"That same play the next time could be the one where you get hurt, so you don't want to get too far ahead of yourself, and that's the way I've approached it," Crosby said.

He began skating about two weeks ago and joined the team for practices in a limited capacity nine days ago. There has been no update to his prognosis, which means he's not expected back until at least the end of the month.

Thanks go out to good Friend of The Show Eric B. of The Sidney Crosby Spotlight for sending in the link to that story.

Pens v Sabres tomorrow - okay, later today - @ 6:00pm Eastern. GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!