The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-5 in overtime on Thursday night, jumping over the Washington Capitals to grab the second and final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Penguins’ game-winning goal came courtesy of a huge Erik Karlsson slap shot set up by future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby.
Not only was the feed right into Karlsson’s wheelhouse, but it served as Crosby’s 1,000th career assist, making the Penguins captain the 14th player all time to reach the mark and the seventh fastest.
During his 19 seasons in the NHL, Crosby has set up longtime teammate Evgeni Malkin the most (138 goals). He’s assisted on goals to four current Hockey Hall of Famers: Mark Recchi (24), John LeClair (2), Marian Hossa (1), and Mario Lemieux (1).
This may be hard to believe, but Crosby also has set up 10 different former Capitals on goals throughout his career. Yes, really.
Crosby assists on former Capitals’ goals
Sergei Gonchar, 25
Conor Sheary, 20
Justin Schultz, 8
Matt Niskanen, 7
Matt Cooke, 6
Brooks Orpik, 5
Chris Conner, 2
Lars Eller, 2
Daniel Sprong, 2
Daniel Winnik, 2
Notably, three of those former Capitals were members of Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup champion team (Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, and Lars Eller). Eller scored the Caps’ Cup-winning goal in Game Five against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Jayson Megna, a 2018 Capitals free-agent signing, had a goal assisted by Crosby but did not make the list because he never ended up playing a game for the Caps (71 with Hershey).
There are 11 others players that have played with Crosby on the Penguins and with the Capitals either prior to or after their stint in Pittsburgh: Matthew Phillips, Steve Oleksy, Eric Fehr, Carl Hagelin, Taylor Chorney, Zach Sill, Chris Bourque, Joel Kwiatkowski, Steve Poapst, Rico Fata, and Kris Beech.
Outside All-Star Games, the only player to have both Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin assist on one of their goals is Sergei Ovechkin (Ovi Jr).
Not only did Crosby collect his 1,000th assist on Thursday, but he also tallied three points on the night, pushing him onto the NHL’s top-10, all-time point scorers list with 1,591.
It goes to show you that no matter how much changes, there have been two constants in the hockey world the last two decades: Crosby making plays and Alex Ovechkin scoring goals.
Congratulations, Sid.
