#87 Sidney Crosby Milestone Thread - History will be made: 20 consecutive PPG seasons

Not bad for a guy who only gets secondary assists
With this afternoon's game, Crosby has now moved into the top ten all-time for most primary points:

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He also moved into the top ten for most primary assists:

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He currently ranks 16th all-time in secondary assists. It's hard to think of a hockey nickname that's backfired more spectacularly than "Secondary Sid".

(He ranks even higher if we're looking at primary points at even strength - he's 6th all-time, behind only Gretzky, Howe, Jagr, Messier, and Dionne. Pretty good for someone who's been accused of racking up a lot of secondary assists on the powerplay - where he ranks T-15th all-time).
 
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I think the most surprising part of how Sid has aged is how durable he's become. Though he does take A LOT less abuse than he did in his 20s.

If he plays out the rest of this season and 148 of the final 164 games on his current contract, and assuming players like Burns plays another season, Perry retires before then, Ovechkin (lock) and Kopitar reach it, at that time, he’ll become just the 26th player ever to play 1500 games.

To me, when reflecting on where the hockey world was back then, and his issues before he was able to skate 500 games, it’s probably the most unbelievable thing he has accomplished in my eyes.

Half of my shtick is to dog on the people creaming about what if, pace, projections, but I’ve been sincerely impressed that he was able to buck the retirement ponderings we all had back in 2011 and 2012, and continue to remain a very good player all these years later. Every last one of us, even the biggest of his supporters, would have lost a bet that he would end up skating 1500 regular season games.

To have the darkness of 2011 and 2012 give way to playing nearly as many games as other popular what ifers like Orr and Lemieux combined, is staggering in retrospect.

That’s a tangible, real thing he overcame and played out, and why I have zero issue slotting him in somewhere in that 6-8 range, but likely 6 spot as he begins wrapping up his career.
 
If he plays out the rest of this season and 148 of the final 164 games on his current contract, and assuming players like Burns plays another season, Perry retires before then, Ovechkin (lock) and Kopitar reach it, at that time, he’ll become just the 26th player ever to play 1500 games.

To me, when reflecting on where the hockey world was back then, and his issues before he was able to skate 500 games, it’s probably the most unbelievable thing he has accomplished in my eyes.

Half of my shtick is to dog on the people creaming about what if, pace, projections, but I’ve been sincerely impressed that he was able to buck the retirement ponderings we all had back in 2011 and 2012, and continue to remain a very good player all these years later. Every last one of us, even the biggest of his supporters, would have lost a bet that he would end up skating 1500 regular season games.

To have the darkness of 2011 and 2012 give way to playing nearly as many games as other popular what ifers like Orr and Lemieux combined, is staggering in retrospect.

That’s a tangible, real thing he overcame and played out, and why I have zero issue slotting him in somewhere in that 6-8 range, but likely 6 spot as he begins wrapping up his career.
It's fine to cram on what if stuff with like random dudes who are shooting at unreasonable percentages, but I think it's weird to look at the paces that a Crosby or a Mario or a McDavid put up in injury shortened seasons and be like "yeah maybe those guys don't keep doing that if they're healthy".

No offense. Not tryna be rude here. But it always weirds me out when people do that with star players who had injury shortened careers.
 
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It's fine to cram on what if stuff with like random dudes who are shooting at unreasonable percentages, but I think it's weird to look at the paces that a Crosby or a Mario or a McDavid put up in injury shortened seasons and be like "yeah maybe those guys don't keep doing that if they're healthy".

No offense. Not tryna be rude here. But it always weirds me out when people do that with star players who had injury shortened careers.

I get what you’re saying here and I don’t really want to go down too far down that rabbit hole right now, but it’s the unsustainable stuff or giving people credit for things they didn’t do or never did that gets under my skin.

And then where does it end? Play the fantasy games for one, you have to play it for the rest. It’s fun to think about Mario breaking Gretzky’s marks if he was fully healthy…but I don’t see the same fervor when it comes to Gretzky’s own issues that prevented him from pushing his numbers even more laughably high than they were in reality.

Crosby has the weakest what if arguments among all the greats, but I’m offering olive branches here since I haven’t been able to watch McDavid play lately.
 
I get what you’re saying here and I don’t really want to go down too far down that rabbit hole right now, but it’s the unsustainable stuff or giving people credit for things they didn’t do or never did that gets under my skin.

And then where does it end? Play the fantasy games for one, you have to play it for the rest. It’s fun to think about Mario breaking Gretzky’s marks if he was fully healthy…but I don’t see the same fervor when it comes to Gretzky’s own issues that prevented him from pushing his numbers even more laughably high than they were in reality.

Crosby has the weakest what if arguments among all the greats, but I’m offering olive branches here since I haven’t been able to watch McDavid play lately.
I think Crosby's injuries probably cost him a couple of art rosses and maybe a rocket. And probably cost him a shot at 2k points.

As for Mario....who knows. He's certainly no worse than #2 all time in points if he doesn't have cancer and all the injuries. Even as a Pens fan I'm not necessarily going to go so far as to say he out scores Gretzky. There was certainly a chance, but it was far from a guarantee.

But yeah it's all what ifs ultimately. What Crosby and Ovechkin and McDavid and Mario and Gretzky have actually accomplished is insanely impressive. We don't even need to play the what if game with them. Though it's fun to imagine.
 
I think Crosby's injuries probably cost him a couple of art rosses and maybe a rocket. And probably cost him a shot at 2k points.

As for Mario....who knows. He's certainly no worse than #2 all time in points if he doesn't have cancer and all the injuries. Even as a Pens fan I'm not necessarily going to go so far as to say he out scores Gretzky. There was certainly a chance, but it was far from a guarantee.

But yeah it's all what ifs ultimately. What Crosby and Ovechkin and McDavid and Mario and Gretzky have actually accomplished is insanely impressive. We don't even need to play the what if game with them. Though it's fun to imagine.

Your last paragraph really resonates.

In one more act of Crosby goodwill, with his 30th goal today, it is the first time in his career that he scored 30 or more goals four seasons in a row.
 
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I think the most surprising part of how Sid has aged is how durable he's become. Though he does take A LOT less abuse than he did in his 20s.
One of those things where injuries are somewhat random and even in players who are injured more often, are extremely rare events. Crosby happened to get injured more often in his prime, which is unfortunate, but they were somewhat fluke injuries. It's not like he had recurring knee or shoulder injuries. And sometimes these things will happen and you'll miss some games unless you have some chemical help (🦅).
 
11th in scoring now. Having similar numbers (and far better 5 on 5 numbers) to guys like Pastrnak and Rantanen at age 37 is pretty wild. Still one of the best in the league, no doubt.
 
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