Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby joined rare company on Wednesday night as he became just the 10th player in NHL history to record 1,600 career regular-season points.
Crosby’s assist on a Bryan Rust power-play goal at the 11:01 mark of the first period of the Penguins’ 6-5 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres pushed him over the line.
The Penguins centre and star forward from Cole Harbour, N.S., becomes the first player since another Pittsburgh legend, Jaromir Jagr, to accomplish the feat, as the Czechia native accomplished it on Oct. 6, 2011. Jagr, who had left the Steel City a decade earlier, retired after having recorded 1,921 points.
Sid the Kid’s former teammate Mario Lemieux is also on the list with 1,723 career points, as are Wayne Gretzky (2,857), Mark Messier (1,887), Gordie Howe (1,850), Ron Francis (1,798), Marcel Dionne (1,771), Steve Yzerman (1,755) and Joe Sakic (1,641).
Crosby is the fifth fastest player in NHL history to make the mark as he did so in 1,277 games. Amazingly, it only took the Great One 667 games to get there, while Lemieux accomplished the feat in 812 games. Dionne (1,164) and Jagr (1,274) were also quicker.
In total, Crosby recorded a goal and two assists on Wednesday night, leaving him with 1,602 points, and only needing 39 to pass Sakic on the career scoring list.
Another Penguin also reached a milestone on Wednesday as Evgeni Malkin scored his 500th career goal. Crosby and Malkin join former Edmonton Oilers Gretzky and Jari Kurri as the only teammates to record 500 goals while still playing together.
Crosby made the assist on Malkin’s 500th goal, but after the game, as the Penguins pair were showing off their pucks for the cameras, the Canadian asked his longtime teammate what would happen with the puck if he had made his 1,600th assist on Malkin’s 500th goal.
Crosby, who famously hails from Cole Harbour, received accolades from many, including another hockey star from Nova Scotia.
The Penguins forward capped off the night by scoring the winning goal in overtime, which brought back many sour memories for at least one Sabres fan.
The momentous night spawned plenty of other praise on social media, including some pretty poor but at the same time amazing Photoshop work.
It also sparked an interesting debate about where Crosby stands among the all-time legends.
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