Penguins’ Sidney Crosby becomes ninth player to reach 1,700 points
Sidney Crosby continues to cement his NHL legacy.
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain entered Monday’s game against the St. Louis Blues two points back of the 1,700 point milestone, and with a three-point night in a 6-3 win, he has done just that.
Forever in awe of 87.
Sidney Crosby becomes the ninth player in @NHL history to reach 1,700 points 👏 pic.twitter.com/1AtZkJSqCi
It wasn’t until the midway point of the second period that Crosby first got on the board to get to the milestone. While on the power play, Erik Karlsson passed the puck to Crosby on the half wall, and Crosby then made a cross-ice pass to Parker Wotherspoon, who snapped the puck top corner past Joel Hofer to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead in the game.
Crosby then hit the milestone with an assist that added to that lead. After being given the puck behind the net, Crosby set up Karlsson at the point for a one-timer, which Bryan Rust deflected home to make it 4-2 for Pittsburgh.
After the Blues had drawn within one, Crosby capped off the night with a breakaway goal late in the third to regain the two goal lead, with Evgeni Malkin’s empty net goal 20 seconds later putting the game away for the 6-3 win.
With his performance, Crosby becomes the ninth player in NHL history to hit the 1,700 point mark, joining Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Ron Francis, Marcel Dionne, Steve Yzerman and Mario Lemieux. He joins Lemieux as the only player to hit the milestone entirely as a Penguin, while Jagr and Francis are the only other players to do so while playing for the Penguins at some point in their career.
While Crosby has held down ninth in all-time scoring for several months now, he does continue to creep his way up the list. He is now just 22 points behind Lemieux for eighth, as well as the Penguins franchise scoring record, and should he have another point-per-game season and be healthy, he could finish the season as high as sixth to pass Yzerman (1,755) and Dionne (1,771).
Crosby has had another excellent start to the season, seemingly turning back time with seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in 10 games.