Sidney Crosby's 1,000th point took a little longer than he'd have liked, but when it finally came for the Penguins' iconic captain, it was in front of his family, it was relished by thousands of his fans with a five-minute standing roar and, above all, it was finished by one of his best friends.
What could possibly have been more perfect?
Maybe adding an overtime winner?
Yeah, that's how it goes for the truly great. Always been that way. Always will.
Roberto Clemente smacks his 3,000th hit in his final regular-season at-bat, perches with one cleat on Three Rivers Stadium's second base and doffs the helmet for all eternity.
Mario Lemieux breaks free in his final game at the Civic Arena, with the crowd breathlessly relishing his every move on every shift, and buries it between Garth Snow's five-hole.
Ben Roethlisberger passes the Steelers to glory but, in his ultimate individual triumph, assures that with a one-handed tackle in Indianapolis.
Nothing that happened on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena touches any of those, of course, and I definitely don't intend to infer that. At the same time, it's worth savoring something special, especially when, as we see so often, it's accompanied by that something extra. That flair. That drama. That something which begins expected ... only to transform into the unexpected ... only for all us to realize we should have expected it all along.
"That," Kris Letang would tell me afterward, "is what great players do."
At 6:28 of the first period, Sidney Patrick Crosby did the eminently expected: He stripped the puck from Winnipeg's Blake Wheeler, whirled at the left dot and fed his most venerable linemate, Chris Kunitz, for a one-timer between the hashes that scorched the Jets' Connor Hellebuyck:
As Crosby sequences go, it was as common as could be. Relentless effort led to winning the puck, the broad straddle of those tree-trunk legs won position, and his swiveling eyes found Kunitz to win the possession.
"It's a play Kuni and I have probably done a lot over the years," Crosby would say. "It was kind of nice for that to happen."
Add all that followed, and it was beautiful. Just beautiful.
His teammates on the ice, including Letang, another longtime teammate and friend, celebrated in a manner that was as dignified as it was joyful. They leaped, raised their sticks, then gave the captain a few seconds in the corner to have his own spotlight -- right arm raised, stick in glove, the crowd fairly shaking the place with the cannonball of a cheer -- before mobbing him, then tailing him back to the bench for the requisite fist-bumps.
That was pretty much it, at least at ice level. The rest of the players didn't spill off the bench, as usually occurs for 1,000, and the only one who took an extra stride was Marc-Andre Fleury, yet another longtime teammate and friend, who'd simply tap Crosby on his helmet and return to the crease.
"That's respect," Letang said of the reaction.
"Respect," Fleury later echoed.
Kunitz, who's participated in 185 of Crosby's 1,000 points, was visibly moved afterward, sitting at his stall almost gleefully welcoming wave after wave of reporter questions:
Sidney Crosby's 1,000th point. - GETTY“He’s a tremendous player," Sullivan said. "The fact that he’s scored 1,000 points in the amount of games that he has is just a testament to the player he is and says a lot about his character. He’s ultra-competitive. He’s an elite player. We’re privileged to have him on our team. As coaches, we marvel at what he does on a nightly basis to help this team win. And the fact that he scored the game-winner is apropos."
Hang on, Coach. That's skipping ahead to the end.
The next challenge for Crosby -- and from the look of things, the Penguins' whole lineup -- was regaining some calibration after 1,000. The big, bruising and better-than-most-think Jets found theirs right away and battled back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the third.
"If anything, it should get you motivated," Crosby said of the early celebration. "But they came back."
So did the Penguins, tying on Kessel's wicked wrister with 6:05 remaining. Power-play assists to Letang and Crosby for 1,001.
And then ... OK, one more time:
With 21.1 seconds left in overtime, Penguins 4, Jets 3.
Served up by yet another longtime teammate and friend, Evgeni Malkin.
Here's to the next 1,000 storylines.
