It wouldn’t qualify as an upset if Sidney Crosby were to produce two or more points tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs aren’t good, played last night and were humiliated by the Avalanche. The Penguins are rested and Crosby is in a pretty good groove.
Just like always.
I bring up the two points or more for a reason. Crosby is currently sitting on 80 points and, with two more points, will guarantee another season in which he has produced a point per game or better. It will mark the 18th season in which he has managed this feat. He is playing in his 18th NHL season. It’s one of the truly great accomplishments in hockey history. Only Wayne Gretzky has produced more point-per-game seasons to begin a career, notching the record of 19.
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Sometimes, numbers can be a little deceiving. Sometimes, though, they tell the precise story. In this case, the latter is accurate.
In the hockey pantheon, the all-time greats showcase particular attributes that are distinctly their own.
Gretzky’s greatest triumph is directly linked to the numbers themselves. His numbers are outlandish. No one will ever match them.
When we think of Mario Lemieux, we think of his sheer talent and how it allowed him to author a career that literally no one else could have written. He was the natural.
Bobby Orr changed the game in ways no one else could have imagined.
Alex Ovechkin combines a ferocity for scoring goals and a ferocity for smashing defensemen into the boards that’s never been matched.
Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. (Perry Nelson / USA Today)
Crosby, of course, belongs in a class with these all-time greats. Rank them in whichever order you’d like, but they’re all magnificent in their own way. And in Crosby, I believe we will ultimately remember how great he was for a remarkably long period of time.
Connor McDavid, who will someday take his rightful spot among these names, is the greatest player in the world and has been for a few years. But before then, it was Crosby who wore that crown. And even now, I’d argue he remains one of the five-ish greatest players in the sport. You’d take McDavid over him now. And maybe Leon Draisaitl. Nathan MacKinnon? Yeah. Auston Matthews and Cale Makar? Maybe. But that’s it. That’s the list. At worst, in my opinion, Crosby remains the sixth-best player in the sport. He’s on pace for 100 points, he’s terrific defensively, and handles every big moment for the Penguins, like he always has.
Crosby is less than five months away from his 36th birthday. Given that this is his 18th season, the math tells us Crosby has literally spent half of his life taking a beating in the National Hockey League. Along the way, there have been at least four concussions. There has been the pressure of being the face of a franchise for almost two decades. There has been the pressure of being the face of the league from the time he was 18, which was no small task, especially when considering the NHL’s state in 2005. There has been the pressure of being the face of Hockey Canada. There has been the constant beating of his body from opponents who don’t care about his legacy.
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Above all, Crosby has been around so long that a literal new generation of players has arrived. And make no mistake, hockey has never been better. They’re faster. They’re bigger. They’re more skilled. They’re better coached. They’re better trained. The kids who grew up all around the globe with a Sidney Crosby poster in their bedroom have reached the NHL and are thriving.
That Crosby remains better than almost of them is really astounding. Lemieux was able to do the same at 35, but with all due respect to Crosby, he doesn’t have Lemieux’s combination of size or talent. I’m not knocking him. It’s just reality.
Ovechkin is still wonderful at 37, but he was blessed with a body that would allow him to age more gracefully. While he’s still great, no one has considered him to be among the greatest players in the game for many years.
Gretzky still put up significant numbers in his mid-to-late 30s, but he only exceeded 30 goals in a season three times past the age of 30 and accomplished it for the final time at age 33. His goal-scoring ability clearly deteriorated in his later years even if his playmaking magic largely remained. No one talked about the Blues or Rangers version of Gretzky as being a top-five player in the sport.
Crosby’s next goal will be his 30th. He’s a hot streak away from hitting 40 this season. It will be the third time he’s reached 30 goals in his 30s, and he was on pace to in two other seasons this decade, but COVID-19 shortened both campaigns. He has a real opportunity to reach 100 points for the seventh time in his career, and we must remember he’d be in the double-digits of 100-point seasons had his health not so often betrayed him in his prime years.
Then again, his current performance isn’t that far removed from his “prime years.”
One can reasonably conclude that Crosby isn’t quite as dominant as he was in 2010, before the first concussion robbed him of his signature season. He was on pace for 64 goals that season, which is a pretty adequate total for the greatest playmaker/passer of his generation.
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He’s lost a bit of explosiveness, I suppose. We don’t see him burst through defenses quite the way he did in his younger days.
But really, I’m being picky at this point. His physical tools remain among the greatest in hockey, as does his mind, which time will never touch. To watch Crosby perform this season, in particular, has been a marvel. The Penguins around him aren’t great. It’s among the weaker rosters Crosby has played on during his time in Pittsburgh. His favorite wingers, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, aren’t having especially good seasons by their standards. The Penguins’ power play has been balky at best and maddening on many nights. If Crosby isn’t scoring, the Penguins aren’t winning, so troubling is their lack of depth.
So, like he always has, Crosby has placed whatever burdens exist directly on his still-powerful shoulders.
There will be no celebrations when Crosby notches his 82nd point. There probably won’t be a notification from the NHL’s app, like there is seemingly every time Ovechkin scores a goal or McDavid does something highlight-reel-worthy.
But when he registers that point, take a moment to appreciate what you’re watching. I’d argue no one in the history of the sport has been this great for this long. Crosby, I suspect due to a sport that takes him for granted, is largely performing under the radar at this point.
Yet he chugs along, four goals from No. 550 and 11 points from No. 1,500. All the while, he’s carrying the Penguins to the playoffs once again. And he’s still one of the greatest players in the game. Again.
There has never been anyone like him.
(Top photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images)