Sidney Crosby: NHL Needs Pittsburgh Penguins Star to Avoid Another Concussion

Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby will return to the ice on Monday night against the New York Islanders for his first NHL game in 320 days.

The league as a whole needs to do everything it can to make sure that he stays there for good.

Sid the Kid has spent nearly 11 grueling months battling back from two devastating hits to the head suffered in January, hits that left him severely concussed and nearly forced him into a far-too-early retirement.

The sport can ill-afford to go on that long without its biggest name and most recognizable face again. Love him or hate him, Crosby is the just the sort of star the NHL needs: a Hart Trophy winner, a Stanley Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist and a guy who generally wears the spotlight well. What's more, he possesses a combination of prodigious talent and charisma not seen on skates since Wayne Gretzky hung 'em up in 1999.

And with the NBA still mired in a lengthy lockout, the NHL must do everything it can to attract the modicum of attention among sports fans that remain uncommitted, at least for the time being. The hockey demographic is undoubtedly different from basketball's, but there are still plenty of new, casual fans to be brought in and new connections to be forged.

Who better to draw those folks in than Crosby? He's a winner and an entertainer, almost as good an ambassador for the game as he is an athlete within it.

As such, the onus is on the players who compete against the Pens and the powers that be in the NHL to ensure Crosby's safety. If need be, have Brendan Shanahan, the league's discipline czar and a man known for dispensing on-ice "justice" during his playing days, issue an edict to goons around the league to spare Crosby their roughest checks and most vile thuggery.

That's not to say that the league should simply let Crosby have his way, that a scorer of his considerable gifts should be spared entirely because he's some sort of "glass man."

Rather, Crosby's plight, and the very real potential for further harm, should serve as yet another cautionary tale about the consequences, both personal and league-wide, of hockey's more threatening elements. Some may bemoan the prospect of protecting Crosby on the ice or berate him for having taken so long to come back, but the fact remains that, unlike in the "good ol' days" of the sport, we now have a greater understanding of the effects on people's lives, both short- and long-term, that concussions and other head injuries can and do have.

It's possible that one big hit, particularly from the blind side, could cost Crosby not only his playing career, but his life.

So, as the fans in Pittsburgh greet Sid the Kid with a rousing round of applause in his return, his peers must remember that, in the end, coming at their adversaries, especially those in the spotlight, with the intent to cause harm only hurts the game of hockey by depriving fans of the stars who make it so exciting to watch.