This previous week, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby set a franchise document when he broke Mario Lemieux’s record for most assists.
On Tuesday, he set an NHL document when he received his 15,183rd face-off within the second interval of their sport in opposition to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
That makes him the NHL’s all-time face-off king, breaking a document that had beforehand been held by former Boston Bruins ahead Patrice Bergeron.
There are two issues about this document that should be mentioned.
The primary is that the NHL solely tracked face-off wins beginning with the 1997-98 season, so it’s fully attainable, if unlikely, that any person in NHL historical past has extra of them. We simply have no idea as a result of it was by no means constantly tracked. It’s type of just like the sack document within the NFL the place it was solely an “unofficial” stat and the numbers diverse from team-to-team.
The second is that when Crosby first entered the NHL, and for the primary a part of his profession, face-offs have been broadly thought of his single greatest weak spot as a participant. Maybe his solely actual weak spot as a participant. However he constantly dedicated himself to enhancing at them and getting higher, and he did so to the purpose the place he has now received extra of them than any participant for the reason that NHL began monitoring them.
It may not be the most important document in hockey historical past, however it’s nonetheless an enormous a part of the sport.
Crosby has an opportunity to interrupt one other NHL document this season if he can preserve a point-per-game common. If he does so, he’ll break a document he’s at present tied with Wayne Gretzky for many consecutive seasons with averaging some extent per sport. Crosby is at present at 19 consecutive seasons. He entered play on Tuesday simply forward of that point-per-game tempo with 42 factors within the Penguins’ first 41 video games this season.
