During the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, the Red Wings announcers on Bally Sports pointed out that Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby needed only four more points against the Original Six franchise to reach 50 for his career.
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The announcers said the only reason the 20-year veteran had yet to net 50 against Detroit is that they were a Western Conference team until 2013, meaning Crosby hasn’t logged as many games against them.
© Stephen R. Sylvanie
Armed with this new insightful knowledge of one of the game’s best players, we decided to check the numbers and see how dominant Crosby has been against his conference rivals. Here is a breakdown.
Eastern Conference
878 GP – 427 G – 739 A – 1,166 PTS – 1.32 Points Per Game
Western Conference
341 GP – 141 G – 229 A – 370 PTS – 1.08 Points Per Game
Even though Crosby maintains a point-per-game average against both conferences, he’s tallied three times the points against teams east of the Mississippi. Here’s a look at those totals.
|
Opponent |
GP |
G |
A |
PTS |
PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
NY Islanders |
86 |
41 |
93 |
134 |
1.56 |
|
Philadelphia |
87 |
55 |
74 |
129 |
1.48 |
|
NY Rangers |
86 |
40 |
68 |
108 |
1.26 |
|
New Jersey |
85 |
41 |
51 |
92 |
1.08 |
|
Washington |
71 |
31 |
59 |
90 |
1.27 |
|
Buffalo |
59 |
28 |
54 |
82 |
1.39 |
|
Boston |
59 |
19 |
54 |
73 |
1.24 |
|
Toronto |
53 |
29 |
39 |
68 |
1.28 |
|
Carolina |
59 |
24 |
43 |
67 |
1.14 |
|
Tampa Bay |
49 |
24 |
41 |
65 |
1.33 |
|
Florida |
50 |
29 |
35 |
64 |
1.28 |
|
Montreal |
49 |
23 |
41 |
64 |
1.31 |
|
Columbus |
42 |
20 |
40 |
60 |
1.43 |
|
Ottawa |
49 |
19 |
38 |
57 |
1.16 |
|
Detroit |
36 |
18 |
28 |
46 |
1.28 |
Interestingly, the Winnipeg Jets is the only team Crosby has more than 50 points against not located in the Eastern Conference. However, the Jets were the former Atlanta Thrashers, a Southwest Division rival that the Penguins captain played routinely for the first six seasons of his career.
Overall, his statistics against the franchise breakdown like this:
As Crosby continues his quest for 600 goals and 1,600 points, it’s fascinating to hear announcers from other teams talk about him with such high regard.
Related: 7 Fascinating Statistics About Sidney Crosby’s Career
Much like legends before him, such as Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Bobby Orr, no one has any bad things to say about Crosby. Instead, they marvel night in and night out while watching him continue to carve out one of the NHL’s most distinguished legacies.
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