FanHouse DustinJeffrey

As if Wednesday's loss to the Capitals wasn't bad enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it also came with a heavy price, as they lost Sidney Crosby to an apparent leg injury. Initially, Crosby had been described as day-to-day, and on Friday afternoon, the Penguins captain ruled himself out for their game against Anaheim after taking part in the morning skate. Had Crosby played, it would have been the first time he took the ice against Ducks forward Bobby Ryan, the No. 2 pick in the 2005 draft who was taken one spot later than Crosby.

As a result of Crosby's absence, the Penguins' already thin group of forwards becomes even more depleted, as the team is already skating without Ruslan Fedotenko, Pascal Dupuis and Max Talbot. The injuries led to a bit of humor -- because if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? -- from the team's official website.

Pavel Datsyuk's goal (shown above) was perhaps the highlight of a great day of hockey in Chicago, and we have to give a well-deserved tip of the cap to Eric McErlain for giving us all a front row seat for the festivities and excitement around Wrigley Field.

Chicago jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period, looking like it was out to send a message after Tuesday night's loss in Detroit, only to have the Red Wings roar back with five consecutive goals -- including a pair from Jiri Hudler -- to take the Winter Classic, 6-4. The Wings are now 4-0 against their original six rivals this season, while improving their record to 25-7-5.

This year's version of the classic, I thought, was far better than last season's game in Buffalo, mainly because this game wasn't played in blizzard conditions. Sure, that was exciting and awesome to look at, but it definitely hurt the on-ice play, while the ice itself was in horrible condition, resulting in multiple stoppages in play to fix massive holes. No such problems this year, just exciting hockey in a historic stadium between two classic teams wearing some awesome, awesome uniforms. Not a huge fan of the rendition of take me out to the ballgame, however. The hockey song would have been a nice touch, but, really, if that's the only negative throughout the event, well, that's a great, great thing for the sport.

Ty Conklin, playing in his third outdoor game in the NHL, stopped 33 shots in the win, while Chicago's Cristobal Huet had to be lifted early in the third period after giving up six goals on 30 shots.