In just 787 games, Sidney Crosby has recorded his 1,000th NHL point. On a beautiful setup of Chris Kunitz, the assist made Crosby the 12th fastest player to the mark and the third to hit it this season (Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Sedin). With it, the Penguins released an interactive booklet showing the journey to 1,000 for “Sid”, who is widely considered one of the greatest players of all-time.
The booklet included quotes from players and alumni around the league, including Wayne Gretzky, Evgeni Malkin and Jonathan Toews. Malkin’s is borderline adorable as he gives it to his long-time teammate:
Hey Sid, I want to say congrats on your 1,000 points. It is a huge number. We both know that 999 [of those] points is because of my help. I have enjoyed playing with you. Every game, every night is so fun. Everyone knows that you are the best player.
Crosby hit the mark in six fewer games than another Pittsburgh legend, Jaromir Jagr, who recently recorded the 1900th point of his career. While Crosby has quite a few seasons left before he catches that ageless wonder, he is pushing himself further up the career lists. He’s only the 86th player in league history to make it to 1,000 and may even jump into the top-75 before the end of the season. He’s still 723 points behind the Penguins’ franchise leader Mario Lemieux, though it’s not so far-fetched that he may push to pass him eventually. At just 29 years old, Crosby has many years of solid hockey left to play. With no evidence of slowing down—in fact, some may say he’s speeding up—he’d need 547 more games at his current pace to tie Lemieux. That’s just six and a half seasons.
More likely he’ll go down as the best player of the post-lockout generation, and that’s still a heck of an accomplishment. Congratulations Sid.
I wonder how many of the other 11 won two Stanley Cups getting to 1,000 points? Probably both Gretzky and Lemieux, for starters…