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The Pittsburgh Penguins have been without their concussed captain Sidney Crosby since early January, and now the team’s general manager said his star definitely won’t be back for the final few weeks of the regular seaso and hinted Crosby will likely be unavailable for the entire playoffs. Crosby has been showing some small signs of progress, though.

Crosby will be traveling with the team for Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and will participate in the pre-game morning skate. But Crosby’s not allowed to participate in contact practices or skate with the team on non-game days.

“Our captain is coming back any time soon?” said Penguins general manager Ray Shero. “That is not our expectation. Having said that, I don’t want to take hope away from the player, because he’s feeling good about himself. But when I talk to Dan Bylsma, our coach, about a date, a certain date about when Sid might be coming back, the certain date might be in training camp.”

More from Shero:

I have no expectation that he’s coming back to play in the regular season. I don’t believe that’s going to happen. In terms of playing in the playoffs for us, that’s still two or three weeks away. I don’t want to take any hope away from the players, but to return to game action for the Stanley Cup playoffs takes a certain level of fitness and game, and he is certainly not close to that at this point.