Sidney Crosby isn't done just yet.
He nows sits alone, tenth, on hockey's all-time scoring list.
Time has a tendency to sneak up on us. Especially in sports.
Consider this: Sidney Crosby, once “The Kid”, is now very-much, at 36, a veteran of the NHL’s old guard. Two weeks before he was drafted, in July of 2005? This season’s presumptive rookie-of-the-year, Chicago Blackhawks phenom Connor Bedard, was born.
Wrap your head around that one, sports fan. Time flies, yeah? Blink-and-you-miss-it.
Watching Crosby on Thursday night though, you’d never know it.
With three points against Detroit, the long-time Pittsburgh captain both set two major milestones and further cemented his place on hockey’s Mount Rushmore.
He is now just the fourteenth player ever to collect 1,000 assists and after tying and then promptly leap-frogging the great Phil Esposito, he has, as of this writing, 1,591 career points: it is the tenth-most in NHL history.
It is, on a whole, remarkable stuff.
Pittsburgh, seemingly out of the playoff race just a few weeks ago, have clawed their way back into contention as the season enters its final stretch and they look to maintain a wildcard spot.
And Crosby, of course, has been at the forefront.
With 41 goals and counting this season, he is just the fifth 36-year-old to hit the 40-goal mark and has joined Wayne Gretzky as the only two players to have nineteen consecutive point-per-game seasons.
It is a reminder that, when it comes to Crosby, we aren’t just watching a great player - we’re watching more than that.
History, in motion.
For many hockey fans, Canadians especially, their go-to “Sidney Crosby Moment” is no doubt The Golden Goal - Crosby’s game-and-gold-winning goal at the 2010 Olympics.
Crosby was only 22 when he was named to Team Canada that winter but he was already a superstar. A Stanley Cup winner the year prior, a scoring champion and an MVP, both, when he was still just a teenager.
Having surpassed the impossible expectations that were placed upon him as “The Next One”, before he even began playing junior hockey.
And here he was, taking the baton, the “next man up” for a team, chock-full of NHL talent, looking for Olympic redemption after falling short in Turin four years earlier.
But the funny thing is? Crosby struggled during the tournament, going pointless in both the quarter and semi-finals.
Nobody remembers that though, do they? Nah.
But I bet we all remember “IGGY!” - the pass-heard-’round-the-world, as Crosby called for the puck from Jarome Iginla eight minutes into overtime against the Americans and promptly co-authored one of Canada’s all-time sporting gems (on home-ice in Vancouver too, no less)
It is, undoubtedly, a great pick. It isn’t mine, though. Scandalous, I know.
Instead, my “Crosby moment” is from November of 2011. The Pittsburgh captain, returning to the ice after missing nearly ten months following his initial bout of concussion troubles.
Would he be the same player? The same, other-worldly dominant force? Before he went down in January of that year, Crosby was operating at a historic level, reeling off a 25-game point streak in the fall of 2010 that saw him put up just over two-points-a-game (which remains the fourteenth longest such streak ever, as of April 2024).
His first game back. In ten months.
So, naturally, it only took five minutes before Crosby, picking up speed in the neutral zone, broke through the New York defence and immediately deposited a shot into the back of the net, via one of his signature backhanders.
He collected four points that night.
Yeah, so much for doubts (for the record, his “Duelling Hat-Tricks Game” versus long-time rival-turned-respected-competitor Alex Ovechkin, was a close second and his lone 2014 Olympic goal was considered too).
Yet in a one-two punch of both lingering concussion issues and the lockout shortened 2012/2013 season, Crosby lost three years of his prime from 2010 to 2013, playing in just 99 regular season games (a full season, plus change).
But consider this - per Paul Pidutti of Daily Faceoff, Crosby’s numbers over that period, averaged out over an 82-game schedule? 51 goals, 97 assists, 148 points. Top-form numbers, albeit hypotheticals but which were a by-product of high-level play. Continued excellence, in the face of so much lost time, which is even more impressive in hindsight.
Even when he wasn’t at his best, he was still, the best.
And when fully healthy once more, Crosby would reinvent himself as a two-way force in the mid-2010s, sacrificing his raw offensive numbers for a more complete 200-foot game, as he led Pittsburgh to back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017 (and collected consecutive playoff MVPs in the process).
The reality is?
Even if the Penguins come up short this season, even if Pittsburgh’s superstar trio (Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang) don’t win another Cup together, as they rage against time and the cruel realities of the ageing curve, Crosby’s legacy will be secure.
Not just the best and most accomplished player of this era (until noted otherwise) but one of the greatest players in the sport’s history.
Pidutti’s numbers further bare this out, with his era-adjusted work providing a more complete picture of Crosby’s career when compared to the legends-row he has been stacked up against for the better part of twenty years - era-adjusted, he is the fourth-highest scorer of all-time, behind only Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Jaromír Jágr.
This, alongside everything else that makes Crosby, well, Crosby: his revered, on-the-biggest-stage leadership, his defensive acumen, paired with a oft-under appreciated ability to control the physical flow of a game (four times, he has finished top-ten in Selke voting) or his outstanding hockey IQ - the way, few others can, that he is able to simply “see” the game, dictating even his opponents, in order to turn their mistakes to his advantage.
No, Crosby probably won’t climb that high on the all-time points ladder.
Joe Sakic, at ninth with 1,641 points, will be the next player he surpasses, sometime next season, health permitting. After that, it is the only man who stands above Crosby on the Penguins hierarchy, besides Jágr - his one-time linemate, Mario Lemieux, who, at this moment, is 132 points ahead of his former protégé. That seems likely.
But yet, on the same hand, who can really say for sure?
In 2022, Crosby said he was hopeful to play “at least" three more years, which would place him in 2025. Maybe, hopefully, he’ll keep going as long as he can, for as long as his drive for one more Cup permits. But maybe not.
Even Gretzky, he of so much brilliance, only scored nine goals in his final season. To see Crosby, to see any athlete, go out that way, riding the fumes of yesteryear can be disheartening, as enjoyable as it can be, giving them a final lap around, so to speak.
And Crosby’s critics, well, they have been numerous over the years, from disagreements over his play-style to the accusations of being a complainer to referees (a reputation he gained during his rookie season and in some online circles, has, unfortunately, been yet to shake).
Ultimately, though? We should simply be grateful to see an all-time player in action, for as long as we can.
After all, in hockey, time flies.
But Crosby? He doesn’t seem all that bothered.