From there, you start looking at tiers…1,000 points in hockey, 50 touchdowns in football, and ever 100 home runs in baseball.
Five games into the 2024-25 NHL regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins had their dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin hit plateaus that essentially put them on the five-year waiting list for the Hockey Hall of Fame.
After being shellacked 6-0 by the New York Rangers in their home opener, the Sabres fell down 2-0 within the first four minutes to the Buffalo Sabres, who were fresh off their first win of the season. At 11:01 of the first period, Brian Rust put home a power play goal to cut Buffalo’s lead in half. Tallying the primary assist on Rust’s goal, Crosby became just the tenth player in NHL history to eclipse 1,600 points. Crosby passed Phil Esposito for tenth all time late last season with 1,591 points.
Crosby also needs seven goals to be the 20th to eclipse the 600 mark. Joe Sakic sits only 39 points ahead for ninth all time. Taken first overall in 2005, Crosby has appeared in 1,277 games over his stellar career. Other Penguins drafted that year include Kris Letang, who is seven games shy of 1,000, and Joe Vitale, currently the color commentator on radio for the St. Louis Blues.
Take it a step further, Jordan Staal was taken second overall by the Penguins, who is still going strong at over 1,250 games played.
The year prior, Pittsburgh selected Evgeni Malkin first overall, and Alex Goligoski in the second round. Both have appeared in over 1,000 games, with Golisoski just announcing his retirement last month. Malkin’s 1,150 games give the pair 2,427 games as teammates.
With the Penguins netting two goals in the second period, the teams went to the locker room tied 3-3. Just 3:26 into the final period, Crosby fed Malkin to put Pittsburgh ahead. The goal was the magical 500 in Malkin’s career. Malkin sits at 1,307 points, currently 36th all time. Even by paltry standards, “Geno” should be able to move into the top 30, just 42 points behind Mats Sundin. Despite injuries catching up with Malkin at the start of the decade, he played every game each of the past two years, netting 150 points over that period.
The total climbed by four against Buffalo, with a goal and three assists. While Crosby assisted on Malkin’s tally for 500, Malkin returned the favor with the secondary assist on Crosby’s 6-5 overtime winner. Despite the goal being Crosby’s first of the season, Malkin’s assist was already his ninth of the early campaign. In fact, going into action on Saturday evening, Malkin was tied with the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin for tops in the NHL with 11 points.
We all grow up watching a pair of teammates save a franchise, or sometimes even revolutionize their sport. Beliveau and Richard. Trottier and Bossy. Gretzky and Messier. Lemieux and Jagr. Yzerman and Federov. Sakic and Forsberg.
We all grow up watching a pair of teammates save a franchise, or sometimes even revolutionize their sport. Beliveau and Richard. Trottier and Bossy. Gretzky and Messier. Lemieux and Jagr. Yzerman and Federov. Sakic and Forsberg.
When everyone thought that it would be Kane and Toews, here are Crosby and Malkin continuing to excel into their late 30’s. We know the time is limited with one, or both, of the Penguin legends, especially with the Penguins contending more for wild card spots now than conference championships a decade ago. The pair have three Stanley Cup titles (2009, 2016, and 2017), with Crosby (2016 and 2017) winning a pair of Conn Smythe trophies, and Malkin picking up the 2009 trophy.
Crosby is only 121 points behind Lemieux for the all-time Penguin scoring record, which will likely come at some point after the All Star break next season.
When both Crosby and Malkin score in a game, the Penguins are 399-90-47 all time.
MacDavid and Draisaitl may get there one day, but still appreciate Sid and Geno while we still can.
-JC24