It was a great evening. Sidney Crosby got his 500th goal against the Philadelphia Flyers which was also his 50th goal against them. It coincided with the 50th birthday of a fellow Mt. Rushmore Penguin, Jaromir Jagr.
Crosby scored on the power play early in the game which allowed time for the accomplishment to marinate. The goal was assisted by his two-headed monster buddy, Evgeni Malkin. It was a classic #SidDownLow goal. Considering you don’t get to control many of the variables in something like this and they all panned out it was pretty much as good as a #500 goal could be. I’m very happy for Sid and that he got this moment. It wasn’t always a guarantee given the severe injuries from the early 2010’s. Losing that time will be forever disappointing as he lost out on about 86 goals and 238 points by my calculations.
His comeback and perseverance since then has been tremendous. For a lot of people that would derail the excellence. With Sid, it was just motivation to keep pushing. Two more Stanley Cups and two Conn Smythes later he’s a bonafide legend of the sport just like he was on pace to be.
The goal
500 goals for Crosby!! 🎉👠pic.twitter.com/xnGvxAqHOH
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) February 16, 2022
The reaction
A special moment for a special player. pic.twitter.com/6Yc8jlpSpJ
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2022
The montage
50 goals against the Flyers... and 500 GOALS IN THE NHL!
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 16, 2022
Congratulations Sid! It has been our honor to watch every single second. pic.twitter.com/oR6TO7oNDb
A bunch of cool Crosby goal facts courtesy of Bob Grove
Crosby’s 500 career goals:
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) February 16, 2022
Unassisted (22)
Game-winning goals (73 so far)
On the backhand (72)
Empty-Net (25)
First goal of game (95)
Coming in 2-goal games (74 so far)
Coming in 3-goal games (12 so far)
Sid goals by period:1st period (153) 2nd period (165) 3rd period (164) OT (18)
106 different players have assisted on Sid’s goals. Most:
Malkin (109) Letang (100) Kunitz (58) Guentzel (45) Gonchar (40) Dupuis (31) Hornqvist (30) Kessel (30) Recchi (19) Sheary (19) Rust (19) Whitney (17) Goligoski (16) Orpik (16) Guerin (15) Schultz (15)
Sid’s: Most goals vs 1 team:
Flyers (50) Most GWG goals vs 1 team: Islanders (9) Most OT goals vs 1 team: NYI, NYR, Phil (3 each) Latest goal: 4:38 OT v Jets, 2/16/17 Earliest goal: 0:10 @ Ott, 4/7/15.
Sid’s highest shooting %, vs. goalies he’s faced at least 3 times:
Lindback (58.3) Hiller (44.4) Georgiev (40.0) Lack (38.5) Gustavsson (31.8) Budaj (31.6) Toskala (30.4)
Only 10 players in NHL history have scored 500 goals and played their entire career with 1 franchise. Only Pens+Habs have 2 such players:
Ovechkin (759) Yzerman (692) Mario (690) Sakic (625) Bossy (573) Richard (544) Mikita (541) Perreault (512) Beliveau (507) Crosby (500)
You knew Mr. Grove would bring the goods for this occasion and he did.
Here are some other fun Crosby facts
All of the assists that helped make 500 possible... pic.twitter.com/RdWZ3WJ1Kz
— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) February 16, 2022
500 career goals, with at least one scored against all 31 other NHL teams â¬‡ï¸ pic.twitter.com/nvCzvIYPPq
— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) February 16, 2022
The remarkable thing about Crosby is heading into the Flyers game you just knew he was going to score his 500th because that is what he does. I still think it is wild he pulled it off, but that’s him in a nutshell.
Congratulations to Sidney Crosby. Scoring 500 goals is a well-deserved honor which has been a long time coming. Here is to good health and many more.
Thanks for reading!