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Two special milestones for two special Penguins on a special night
October 17, 2024, 3:38 PM ET [77 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Last night is as good as it gets for regular season hockey. You have a 500th goal, a 1,600th point, a big comeback victory, and stars being stars. I’d say outside of an end of the year regular season game with big playoff implications last night is the only contender for a better game, and even then.

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby led the Penguins to an exciting 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres and it was a good victory for the club, but all focus is on both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby’s amazing career achievements attained in the win. It was a special night and one that left myself and I’m sure many others buzzing afterwards. It’s been a pretty meh few years on the Penguins hockey front and this was a great opportunity to have a visceral reaction even if it is only five games into the season.

Having both of these players still going strong 19 years into being teammates is so incredibly special. It was such an amazing night seeing both achieve such ridiculously awesome milestones on the same night.

Sidney Crosby picked up an assist on the Penguins first goal of the night to register point number 1,600. While it would have been awesome if the 1,600th point came on Malkin’s 500th goal at least with it playing out the way it did Sid can keep the entire puck. Crosby is the tenth player in NHL history to hit this milestone. He is the fifth fastest player to do so.




It *should* be Crosby’s ~1,839th point if not for David Steckel to just put things into perspective.

Later in the game came Malkin’s 500th career goal. You already know who passed him the puck. It couldn’t have been any other way. This looked like a goal that could have happened in 2009. Sid finding Malkin in stride while he is just barreling towards the net and somehow finding a way to finish the play off. Perhaps lost in the enormity of the moment is how ridiculous it was for Malkin to use his left leg to get the puck to his stick to even have a chance to score from his back. I love that Geno has such a highlight reel goal for his 500th because when you watch all those Youtube complications the 500th goal is always on them regardless of how good it was. This one was spectacular.




These moments obviously mean a lot for both guys. We know the window for a Stanley Cup is closed. These are the moments and feelings we yearn for in the final years of this era. What a perfect script last night.






Zooming in from the big picture view into the present Evgeni Malkin is absolutely cooking in the 2024-25 season. He is doing things that haven’t been done since Mario Lemieux and if that’s the case then you know you’re feeling it



As of this morning those 11 points are good enough for Evgeni Malkin to be leading the league in points. It is the largest point total he’s ever had after five games. Who knows where it goes from here, but it is so awesome to see Malkin get off to a start like this at 38 years old. It would be really easy for someone with Malkin’s injury history and frame to completely break down and fall off a cliff and that just hasn’t happened to this point. He is thriving and it is so enjoyable to see.

The Penguins legendary pair obviously care a lot for one another and joined the TNT broadcast after the game



Penguins fans had to enjoy that little back and forth with Henrik Lundqvist where it was revealed Crosby has the most points against Lundqvist and Malkin has the most goals.

On a night like last night there are so many historical happenings and I can’t think of anybody better to deliver the numbers on our timeless duo than the consistently great, Bob Grove. Here are a lot of cool facts:



Sid is the 10th player all-time to reach 1,600 points and is 41 points behind Sakic. Most points vs. one opponent: NY Islanders, 134 Philadelphia, 129 NY Rangers, 108 New Jersey, 92 Washington, 90 Buffalo, 83 Boston, 73

Sid career points: Home, 876 Road, 724 First period, 486 Second period, 534 Third period, 536 Overtime, 44 Even Strength, 1,029 (77 empty net) Power Play, 560 (1 empty net) Shorthanded, 11 (2 empty net)

Sid, most points vs. goaltenders: Lundqvist (64) Halak (37) Brodeur (32) Elliott (32) Miller (30) Holtby (27) Price (27) Ward (27) Biron (25) Bobrovsky (25) Luongo (25) Niittymaki (25)

4 of the 10 players all-time players to score 1,600 points (40%) have played for the Pens: Jagr (806 GP) Francis (533 GP) Mario (915 GP) Sid (1,277 GP)

500th goal scorers in Pens’ sweater: Mario, 10/26/95 @ NYI Mullen, 3/14/97 @ Colorado Recchi, 1/26/07 @ Dallas Sid, 2/15/22 v. Philadelphia Geno, 10/16/24 v. Buffalo

Malkin, regular-season goals assisted by: Sid, 140 Letang, 87 Kessel, 58 Gonchar, 39 Neal, 38 Rust, 33 Unassisted, 29 Kunitz, 28 Hornqvist, 21 Guentzel, 20 Sykora, 19 Whitney, 15 Hagelin, 15

Number of games it's taken Sid to reach the 400-, 800-, 1,200- and 1,600-point plateaus: 400th point (292 GP, 10/3/09 @ NYI) 800th point (279 GP, 11/26/14 v Tor) 1,200th point (356 GP, 3/5/19 v Fla) 1,600th point (352 GP, 10/16/24 v Buff)

12 of the 48 players to score 500 goals (25%) have played for Pens: Jagr (806 GP) Mario (915 GP) Robitaille (46 GP) Iginla (13 GP) Crosby (1,276 GP) Recchi (389 GP) Marleau (8 GP) Francis (533 GP) Hossa (12 GP) Trottier (156 GP) Mullen (379 GP) Malkin (1,150 GP)

Teams with most players scoring their 500th goal in their sweater: Detroit (5: Howe, Yzerman, Shanahan, Ciccarelli, Verbeek) Chicago (5: Hull, Goulet, Mikita, Hossa, Bondra) Pittsburgh (5: Mario, Sid, Recchi, Mullen, Geno) Montreal (4: Beliveau, F. Mahovlich, Richard, Lafleur)

Malkin, most goals against goaltenders: Lundqvist, 20 Biron, 11 Miller, 11 Brodeur, 10 Holtby, 10 Price, 10 Roloson, 10

500-goal scorers born outside N. America: Ovechkin, 853 Jagr, 766 Selanne, 684 Kurri, 601 Sundin, 564 Mikita, 541 Hossa, 525 Bondra, 503 Malkin, 500

A lot of people ask why would you want to re-sign Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang if the Cup window is closed? Last night is right at the top of the list. Could you imagine watching Malkin score #500 in a different jersey? Ludicrous, unacceptable, idiotic, and a complete non-starter. These players are Penguins and we are going to share all the great milestones long the way in the proper black and gold.

Last night was amazing and really put into perspective how amazing the past two decades have been for Penguins hockey. Congratulations to Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby on their remarkable career achievements and thank you for all the memories which led to those numbers and for the ones to come.

Thanks for reading!
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