MILAN — Sidney Crosby skated Saturday morning with Team Canada, but no determination has been made yet on his status for the gold medal game Sunday against Team USA, coach Jon Cooper said.
Team Canada closed its practice to reporters, so there was no chance to see what Crosby looked like on the ice or with whom he skated with.
“I haven’t spoken to him yet,” Cooper said. “We’re gonna meet tonight and have a determination of what’s gonna happen tomorrow. He won’t put himself in harm’s way and he’s not gonna put the team in harm’s way. Obviously, we’d love to have him. That determination will be made tonight.”
Cooper said Crosby will not dress in a limited role, or to serve as an inspiration, a la Victor Hedman in Sweden’s quarterfinal game.
“It’s too important,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to have somebody in there as an inspiration when we could have a player that could be capable of helping. You never know if guys are gonna get hurt in the game. He wouldn’t want to do that either.”
He also fielded a question about whether it was allowed for Crosby to be behind the bench as a de facto assistant coach, saying he didn’t know, but it won’t happen.
Cooper did confirm that Canada will be without defenseman Josh Morrissey, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first game of the tournament.
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He deflected when asked whether Morrissey — who practiced fully before Canada’s preliminary-round finale against France and looked set to return — suffered a setback.
“Josh, in the end, he just wouldn’t be able to perform at what he could,” Cooper said. “We made the decision.”
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