Pittsburgh Penguins superstar captain Sidney Crosby collected two goals and an assist on Saturday afternoon to become the 15th player in NHL history to record 1,500 career points.
Crosby, 35, capped his three-point performance by scoring a power-play goal at 3:01 of third period in the Penguins’ 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
It was the 1,188th game for Crosby, with only Wayne Gretzky (620), Mario Lemieux (747), Marcel Dionne (1,078), Jaromir Jagr (1,165) and Phil Esposito (1,166) as the lone NHL players requiring fewer games to reach the milestone.
True to form, Crosby kept Pittsburgh’s postseason aspirations ahead of his own accomplishment. The Penguins (40-30-10, 90 points) moved into the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference following their win over the Red Wings, although the Florida Panthers (41-31-7, 89 points) and New York Islanders (40-30-9, 89 points) play later on Saturday.
“Obviously, the most important thing is the next game in our situation here. The urgency and desperation … that’s what I’m thinking about more than the numbers,” Crosby said. “But it’s a nice number, and a lot of guys are a big part of that, a couple of them for a long time. But I think that’s just a product of some guys that I’ve played with over the years. It’s just a nice number.”
Crosby’s 1,500 points (550 goals, 950 assists) with the Penguins are the seventh-most by one player with one franchise. Gordie Howe (1,809, Red Wings), Steve Yzerman (1,755, Red Wings), Lemieux (1,723, Penguins), Gretzky (1,669, Edmonton Oilers), Joe Sakic (1,641, Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche) and Ray Bourque (1,506, Boston Bruins) are ahead of Crosby in that regard.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was quick to heap praise on Crosby following the latter’s latest accomplishment.
“(Crosby is) not only one of the greatest players of his generation, he’s one of the greatest players of all time, and he continues to do it,” Sullivan said. “We all grow accustomed to all these milestones that he seems to keep achieving. Every additional one that he achieves, it seems like it’s that much more impressive, and it puts him in more elite company.
“I don’t know how else to say it. I mean, you guys know what I think of him as a player and as a person. He’s just an incredible athlete, and he just represents our game the right way. He just personifies everything that’s right about hockey, that’s good about our sport. The way he carries himself, his humility — but I think his performance speaks for itself, his legacy speaks for itself, and his appetite to win never seems to diminish. He’s as hungry as he’s ever been to win a Stanley Cup.”
–Field Level Media
