TAMPA, Fla. -- Ask Sidney Crosby a hundred times, and, in each instance, he'll tell you it's not a lot of fun skating and practicing unless he is with his teammates.

Yet it was last week, while the rest of the Penguins were on the road, that the team captain had his most productive on-ice sessions in weeks.

His right leg felt strong. There was little backlash from day to day. The frustrating high ankle sprain that had kept him out for a quarter of the season was becoming manageable.

"I feel pretty strong right now. I figure it's time," Crosby said in proclaiming himself ready to play after the Penguins' morning skate yesterday at the St. Pete Times Forum.

After missing 21 games, Crosby returned last night to face the Tampa Bay Lightning -- the same opponent against whom he was injured Jan. 18 when he slid feet-first into the boards.

"It's weird how that works," Crosby said.

Despite some twists and turns in his recovery -- he began skating and practicing with the team in early February, then backed off when it became clear he wasn't close to returning -- and constant speculation about his return date, there was nothing weird about the way the past several weeks went for the Penguins' captain and the NHL's reigning scoring champion and MVP.

From the onset, the projection was that Crosby would miss six to eight weeks. He hit the six-week mark Friday.

Monday, while the rest of the team had a day off, Crosby skated before joining the club for its flight to Florida. He then approached coach Michel Therrien, saying if the morning skate went well, he was ready to return.

"We didn't want to put any pressure on him," Therrien said. "I talked to him about 10 days ago [and said] there was going to be no pressure. He's going to be the one who's going to make the call."

When Crosby made that call yesterday, Therrien couldn't have been happier. "It's great news," he said.

More good news could come Sunday at Washington. That's when Therrien expects Marian Hossa -- who skated some toward the end of the morning skate -- to return from a knee sprain. Hossa, acquired last week in a trade with Atlanta, will skate on Crosby's line. He was injured Thursday in his first game with the Penguins.

Crosby agreed with the initial reaction of many to the trade -- the addition of someone who has 296 goals and 638 points in 690 NHL games while just 29 years old makes the Penguins more of a threat to advance in the playoffs.

"It's a big [trade] for us," he said. "It makes us very deep and makes us pretty dangerous. It's a great move, definitely an opportunity for us to do something."

The Penguins have been doing things in Crosby's absence. Namely scoring, winning and hanging around at or near the top of the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.

In 21 games without Crosby, the Penguins were 11-6-4, garnering 26 of a possible 42 points, and averaged 3.1 goals a game. The Penguins were averaging 2.8 goals before he got hurt, even though he was leading the NHL with 63 points when injured.

"The team really responded well when we lost him," Therrien said. "We were not sure what to expect. Give credit to the players. They raised their game with the challenge.

"The challenge is still there, even though Sid is back."

The player who picked up the most slack is Evgeni Malkin, who had 14 goals, 36 points in the 21 games without Crosby and now is challenging Washington's Alex Ovechkin for the NHL scoring title.

Crosby could only watch and encourage from the side. He had never missed anything close to this amount of time before.

"Mentally, it's a grind," Crosby said. "It's something you go through with an injury, and it's something I realize now."