Countdown: Sidney Crosby's 18th consecutive point-per-game season

[CpatainCanuck]

With 81 points, Crosby just needs a single point to guarantee this milestone. Only Gretzky, with 19 ppg seasons, has more (consecutive or otherwise). Crosby has 15 games + 1 period to do it.

What is impressive is Crosby's consistency: He has averaged between 1.06 and 1.68 ppg his entire career. Gretzky averages ranged from 1.00ppg to 2.77ppg, before finally dropping to 0.89ppg in his final season.

Simply put: Crosby is a machine.

 

[DearDiary]

He did it while playing with a wrist injury from 2014-2021 (Reaves slash). His consistency regardless of circumstances is maybe his greatest asset

 

[Riddum]

Quietly.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Quietly.

Burning villages.

 

[Hedmonster Bolt]

Generational.

 

[Three On Zero]

Still the best player since Lemieux. Guy had to fight through some serious injuries and some low scoring seasons

 

[ORRFForever]

Still the best player since Lemieux. Guy had to fight through some serious injuries and some low scoring seasons

He is GREAT.

 

[ricky0034]

there's something inherently very weird to me about saying someone had "18 consecutive point per game seasons" when 4 of those seasons he had less points than the amount of games his team played

 

[ijuka]

there's something inherently very weird to me about saying someone had "18 consecutive point per game seasons" when 4 of those seasons he had less points than the amount of games his team played

Yep. I think that a PPG season should require a minimum of 82 points in a 82 game season.

That sorta is what this very thread seems to imply, so it's a bit curious.

 

[nightonthesun]

Deliberately obtuse to interpret PPG as half a team stat and half a player stat. Like what in the world. It’s points per games you play. You can’t score if you’re out of the lineup. That’s not how PPG has ever been calculated.

 

[Zbynek]

Yep. I think that a PPG season should require a minimum of 82 points in a 82 game season.

That sorta is what this very thread seems to imply, so it's a bit curious.

Isn't that why we're talking about the PPG metric rather than the points total?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Remarkable career. Glad I got to see it. He still has gas in the tank, too.

 

[turkleton85]

there's something inherently very weird to me about saying someone had "18 consecutive point per game seasons" when 4 of those seasons he had less points than the amount of games his team played

I agree to a certain level. When someone comes up with stats like these, i always think of karl malone and his consecutive 2000 points seasons.... but do you doubt he would have hit 82 points in each of those seasons??

72 pts in 52 games in 2008
66 pts in 41 games in 2011
37 pts in 22 games in 2012
56 pts in 36 games in 2013
47 pts in 41 games in 2020
62 pts in 55 games in 2021

When he is on the ice, he always performs. The bad injury luck from 2011 is till 2013 is really something

 

[PostBradMalone]

It should be consecutive 82-point seasons, not this garbage where we look at 20- or 30-game skeds.

 

[Deas]

Deliberately obtuse to interpret PPG as half a team stat and half a player stat. Like what in the world. It’s points per games you play. You can’t score if you’re out of the lineup. That’s not how PPG has ever been calculated.

Yeah. Incredibly weird take by the posters who brought that up.

Also, with the greats there is no clear trend that PPG goes down with more games played in a season. That is such an exaggerated perspective.

 

[SomeDude]

Yeah. Incredibly weird take by the posters who brought that up.

Also, with the greats there is no clear trend that PPG goes down with more games played in a season. That is such an exaggerated perspective.

Not so weird when you realize so many want to find a way to minimize or discredit Crosby’s successes for whatever reason.

The guy could pull a baby out of a burning building and you’d have people saying “well, he left the goldfish”

 

[LuckyPierre]

It should be consecutive 82-point seasons, not this garbage where we look at 20- or 30-game skeds.

Setting the bar at 82 points flat for this conversation makes little sense. Three seasons in the last decade featured totals of 48, 56, and 68-71 games played.

And when comparing Crosby to Wayne, it remains nonsensical to set that bar at 82 as Wayne himself had ppg seasons of 65 and 48 points to keep his streak going.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Not so weird when you realize so many want to find a way to minimize or discredit Crosby’s successes for whatever reason.

The guy could pull a baby out of a burning building and you’d have people saying “well, he left the goldfish”

It happens with star players in all sports, but it feels uniquely amplified in hockey, or at least on HFB's. The number of people that shit on McDavid and Matthews currently is bizarre. Similar with Ovechkin in the past. There's trolling fans for fun, but a lot of these posters are actually serious in discrediting these players.

On messages boards for other sports I follow, hate of players is definitely rampant, but they still respect them as players and don't diminish the work from great ones in the sport.

 

[SEALBound]

Ol' Reliable Sidney.

 

[edog37]

With 81 points, Crosby just needs a single point to guarantee this milestone. Only Gretzky, with 19 ppg seasons, has more (consecutive or otherwise). Crosby has 15 games + 1 period to do it.

What is impressive is Crosby's consistency: He has averaged between 1.06 and 1.68 ppg his entire year. Gretzky averages ranged from 1.00ppg to 2.77ppg, before finally dropping to 0.89ppg in his final season.

Simply put: Crosby is a machine.

4th GOAT, so not surprising.

 

[SomeDude]

It happens with star players in all sports, but it feels uniquely amplified in hockey, or at least on HFB's. The number of people that shit on McDavid and Matthews currently is bizarre. Similar with Ovechkin in the past. There's trolling fans for fun, but a lot of these posters are actually serious in discrediting these players.

On messages boards for other sports I follow, hate of players is definitely rampant, but they still respect them as players and don't diminish the work from great ones in the sport.

I’ve said this before, but I think a lot of it comes down to the media coverage. For the majority of his career, Crosby would have meat heads like Milbury and Keith Jones looking for reasons to pick his game apart and find something to complain about him in every intermission for national games.

I only really watch NFL and some casual MLB, but it seems like the commentators are always being positive and lifting their star players up even when they make mistakes.

The NHL is the worst league in the world at marketing.

 

[Nathaniel]

Which season of crosbys career was he going to drop below a ppg for the haters?

 

[Toby91ca]

Which season of crosbys career was he going to drop below a ppg for the haters?

The funny thing is.....his 37pts in 22 game season...which a lot will point to as being soft when pupping up his ppg season streak is probably his greatest per game performing season in his career. Not only is 1.68ppg his best, it also came in one of the lowest scoring seasons in history (or since 1955 anyway....starts to be a different game the further you go back). Only 2 of the last 18 years have been lower and only 7 of the last 68 years. There are huge what ifs for Crosby as he was basically on a rocket ship before he went down with that concussion and he gets knocked for missing all those games.....rightfully so, but he's gone on to play enough seasons and games to get over most of that....there are just what ifs out there....we aren't talking about a Lindros or Forsberg type career.

You can knock him for the injury trouble for a period there....but knocking down the ppg season streak because of games missed seems like a reach.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

there's something inherently very weird to me about saying someone had "18 consecutive point per game seasons" when 4 of those seasons he had less points than the amount of games his team played

Agreed. This is just the NHL and Pens fans trying to inflate something that isn't really a thing. Yes, technically he got a PPG in those seasons, but for me, if you aren't playing the majority of your teams games, the PPG stat is suspect.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

there's something inherently very weird to me about saying someone had "18 consecutive point per game seasons" when 4 of those seasons he had less points than the amount of games his team played

Most "points per game on the schedule" seasons (regardless how many games the player actually played)

• 17x - Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe
• 14x - Sidney Crosby
• 13x - Mark Messier, Marcel Dionne, Dale Hawercuk

Under this approach, for example, Lemieux doesn't get credit for 2001, but Jagr would still get credit for 2000 despite missing a quarter of the year. Even if we disregard seasons like 2008 and 2011, Crosby still ranks 3rd all-time. (And he did it in a lower-scoring era than everyone at the top of the list, except for Howe).