"Perhaps Sidney Crosby's biggest short-term concern will be finding a samaritan to rattle his teeth, and a time for that to happen.

"I might have to do something to get them to hit me," Crosby, smiling broadly, said Thursday of his Penguins teammates.

It was an upbeat day for the captain of the club. Crosby received clearance for full contact in practices, a highly anticipated late-stage step in his comeback from a concussion.

It comes with a problem, though. The Penguins schedule is cramped with 13 games in 24 days this opening month of the 2011-12 season. That means full-fledged practices with high-energy contract drills will be rare.

"It's pretty tough right now," Crosby said. "We're playing pretty much every second day or in back-to-back games. There's not a lot of practices with contact per se.

"I've got to get hit at some point during practice, but we're playing so much, it's pretty tough to get that now.""