Buffalo, New York - home of many historical events. The assassination of President William McKinley, followed by the inauguration of “The Lion” - Theodore Roosevelt. One of the first cities to be powered by electricity. The local professional football team was the first (and is still the only) team to play in four consecutive Super Bowls. Buffalo, N.Y. was the site of another first on Thursday evening - Sidney Crosby, Captain of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, became the first player in the history of the National Hockey League to average a point-per-game for 20 consecutive seasons, surpassing Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky’s record of nineteen seasons in a row (he fell short in year 20 at the age of 38). Most of the focus for the 2024-2025 NHL season has been on Washington Capital’s Alex Ovechkin chase to break Gretzky’s goal scoring record of 894 career goals - and while the goal record will be an unbelieveable historic achievement, Crosby’s legacy of dominant consistency for two straight decades cements him as a Top 3 player of all time (I am of the mind that there is absolutely no one anything can do to pass Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as the 1 and 2 greatest players in NHL history, even if their statistical records are supressed - those two have achieved mythic status among hockey historians).
Crosby surrounded by teammates after his record-breaking point Thursday, March 27th
From the moment Crosby entered the NHL in 2005 at the age of eighteen, he was saddled with enourmous expectations: be the face of the league, save a franchise. Casual stuff. He was spoken of as the greatest prospect since Gretzky. Wayne was “The Great One”, Sid the Kid was “The Next One”. Crosby almost immediately justified the insane hype, registering over 100 points as a rookie on a team that finished toward the bottom of the standings. His career has become a laundry list of Hall of Fame accomplishments: three Stanley Cup Championships, two Conn Smythe (Final’s MVP) awards, multiple Gold medals in the Olympics for Team Canada, MVP awards, world championships - he has accomplished virtually everything in the sport, and now owns a record of his own that no other player has ever accomplished. When you look at his production compared to other greats, and the relative to the era’s they played in, it is clear Crosby is the most consistently dominant player of his generation and arguably in league history, and remains an elite offensive force at the age of 37 - historically when players are out of the league, let only one of the leading scorers.
To put Crosby’s career scoring in context, the above shows just how remarkably consistent the Nova Scotian native has been throughout this career. While Lemieux and Gretzky had ridicolous highs that will never be touched again in the sport, both of their later career years trailed off significantly (due to injuries in Lemieux’s case, and natural aging in Gretzky’s). What is making Crosby and Ovechkin’s current seasons even more remarkable is how consistently productive both continue to be at ages 37 and 39 years old. Bringing it back to Crosby however, the graph makes it clear how smooth and less volatile Crosby’s production has been when comparing it to other legends careers: Gordie Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Bobby Orr, and Ovechkin. Its also worth appreciating just how dominant Crosby and Ovechkin have been for 20 seasons relative to the rest of the league.
I think the final point worth highlighting to put Crosby’s record into historical context, is the era in which he has played vs Gretzky and even Lemieux.
The majority of Gretzky and Lemieux’s careers were spent in an era where NHL scoring hovered around 3.8 goals per game - compared to Crosby and Ovechkin’s whose career average has been roughly around 3.0 goals per game - almost a full goal per game lower relative to the years when Wayne and Mario were at their peak. Another example of this, is just how many players in the league at the time ALSO averaged a point per game (scoring either a goal or an assist during the game = 1 point). In the 1980’s (The Gretzky era) - a whopping 38 other players averaged over a point per game. Yes Wayne’s scoring was prolific - but so was the entire leagues. Meanwhile, during the prime years of Crosby’s career - the 2000s and 2010s - only 15 - 18 other players also averaged a point per game. That is an whopping difference of 20 players who also averaged a point in every single game for an entire season.
Crosby’s sheer consistency and continued longevity have set him apart from some of the other legends of the game. Remarkably, an 18 year old kid who came into the sport with the highest level of expectations has not only lived up to them, but exceed them in almost every way possible (Not even considering how beloved and highly spoken of he is off the ice). His on-ice performance has been sustained at an elite level across six presidential administrations. While the Penguins are heading toward a third consecutive post-season on the outside looking in, Crosby remains one of the best players in the game. Hopefully the organization can bring in a new wave of talent to surround the living legend with while he is still producing at a historic rate, and give the Captain another shot at playing playoff hockey. Even if he never plays another game in the playoffs however, we should never take for granted how ridicolously strong and consistent his career has been. While Ovechkin will have the goals record, no one will ever pass Gretzky’s points record, and Mario will always be the most physically talented player - Crosby’s role on Hockey Mt.Rushmore will be as the king of consistency and longevity.
Crosby and Lemieux during Crosby’s rookie and Mario’s final season: 2005-2006
Charts created and sourced using Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.7 Model; publicly available data.