Maybe it's a case of math colliding with romance, but there's long been something curious about how a hockey player can achieve 500 goals or 1,000 points or even just appearing in 1,000 games-- forever the NHL's signature three milestones for skaters -- and have all the other milestones that follow not receive similar fanfare.
That's Sidney Crosby's career at this stage, my friends. And there can't be a higher compliment to be paid.
I mean, my goodness, on the same setting that he'd record his 1,600th point with this secondary assist on Bryan Rust's put-back in the first period of the Penguins' 6-5 overtime victory over the Sabres on this Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena ...
Sidney Crosby becomes the 10th player in NHL history to record 1,600 regular-season points, reaching it in the fifth-fewest games.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 16, 2024
It's the first time this milestone has been reached by an NHL player since Jaromir Jagr on Oct. 6, 2011. pic.twitter.com/jBAFoBsArC
... he'd set up Evgeni Malkin's electric 500th goal in the second:
TAKE A BOW, MR. 500 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YRtMwi4pMf
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 17, 2024
And, as if to show everyone he's still Sid in every conceivable dramatic context, he'd yet again light up the 15,644 on hand by banging home this bullet pass from Erik Karlsson at 1:38 of the overtime:
SIDNEY CROSBY, OUR OVERTIME HERO! pic.twitter.com/3JueoKyW4p
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 17, 2024
Yeah. Just that.
Well, I might well be abandoned by readers after already taking in my other two columns from this event, but I'm here for 1,600, and I'm not about to let it go headline-free. I'm here for Sid being the 10th player in NHL history to reach it. I'm here for Sid being the first to do so since Jaromir Jagr more than a decade ago, on Oct. 6, 2011, as a member of the Flyers. I'm here for Sid being anywhere at all on a list with ... my goodness, all these names ...
NHL
... and soon enough, he'll be above Joe Sakic, well on his way to that other guy one spot up.
"I think it's just an honor to be part of that group," was about all anyone was going to get out of Sid on this subject afterward. "To be honest, I don't think about it a whole lot. Hopefully, there's a lot of time to reflect after the fact. But it's just a huge honor to be in that group of guys."
This group, too, no doubt:
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PENGUINS
Only four ahead of him on that one, and half of them played here, as well.
I'll do one of these for all his milestones, I swear. Every hundred faceoffs won. Every hundred skate blades sharpened. Whatever. It all just gets bigger.
