The Pittsburgh Penguins have emerged from the island of irrelevancy as the holiday break hits. The season began in the worst way, with the team quickly sinking to the bottom of the Metropolitan Division. But thanks to their captain Sidney Crosby's unreal performance over the past few weeks, the Pens have climbed to within one point of a playoff position and six points out of a top-3 spot in their division.
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The Penguins are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, and Sidney Crosby has a three-point outing and two four-point outings over that span. In the team's latest victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, Crosby had three assists, putting him up to 1,033 in his career and tying franchise legend Mario Lemieux for the most assists in organization history. In his usual humble approach, Crosby downplayed any excitement over the personal accolade when he spoke to reporters post-game.
“I don't think about where I am on the list,” he said. “To be with Mario, though, is pretty cool. Like I said, I never would've expected that, so yeah, that's just a bonus.
Thankfully his head coach, Mike Sullivan, was eager to acknowledge and compliment his team's captain. He talked about how incredible it is to join the Hall of Famer Lemieux in another statistic.
"I just think it's elite company,” he said. “Mario's one of the greatest players of all time, as is Sid. Milestones that these guys reach, there's very few players in the history of the game that have reached."
It also is a reminder of how storied Crosby's career has been. Playing in his 20th season, he's still scoring at an elite pace. For Sullivan, Crosby is easily one of the best NHL players ever, along with Lemieux.
"It's just one more piece of evidence to suggest that Sid is one of the very best players of all time," he said. "And, as we know, Mario is as well."
Through 36 games this season, Crosby leads the Penguins in scoring and is averaging over a point-per-game. He has 10 goals and 29 assists for 39 points. What's even crazier is that he's producing this much without any puck luck. He has converted on just 9.3% of his shots on goal, which is nearly five percentage points lower than his career shooting percentage of 14.4%. It's another MVP-level season for Crosby, who continues cementing his Hall of Fame resume with every passing game.
