By Kyle Cantlon
March 5, 2019
Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates his second period goal against the Florida Panthers at PPG Paints Arena on March 5, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
Make no bones about it, Sidney Crosby is still the best player on Planet Earth.
With all the (justified) hype surrounding the younger generation of elite talent in the NHL right now — led by Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Johnny Gaudreau — along with the emergence of Nikita Kucherov as a production juggernaut over the past couple seasons and the never-ending offensive badassery of Alex Ovechkin, Crosby likes to remind us every now and then that he remains king of the puck game.
If you’ve been watching close enough, though, he’s pretty much doled out that reminder every time he’s suited up since coming into the league, but his recent stretch has simply been something else — arguably the best hockey we’ve ever seen him play, which is a hard thought to fathom.
Crosby’s “I’m still your daddy” tour continued full-steam ahead on Tuesday, as Pittsburgh’s captain was in on all three Penguins goals in their 3-2 overtime win versus the Panthers. He culminated his effort with an absurd flip pass to Jake Guentzel on the OT winner.
That egregious display of vision, spacial awareness and all-worldly playmaking ability came on the same night as a special milestone for No. 87, who notched his 1,200th career point on Pittsburgh’s first tally of the night.
Only 48 skaters have ever totalled 1,200 or more NHL points and, hitting the mark in his 927th career game, Crosby is the 11th fastest in NHL history to do so.
On the heels of a casual four-point outing versus Montreal on Saturday, Sid’s three-point night against the Panthers gives him seven in his last two games. Over his last five contests, Crosby has tallied five goals and 13 points. He’s been clipping at a 2.45 point-per-game pace over his last 11.
His last 31 games has been one of the most productive stretches of his career, with The Kid finding the scoresheet 48 times over that span while failing to register at least a point in only six (6!) of those contests.
No. 87 may not be the NHL’s best pure goal-scorer, passer, stick-handler or skater, but no one — maybe ever — computes the games and puts it all together on a consistent basis quite like Sid.
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