Sidney Crosby is the only player in NHL history to have recorded at least a point per game in 20 consecutive seasons. He’s the only one to have notched at least 30 goals as both an 18-year-old and over-35-year-old. He’s the only current player in the league with over 200 playoff points. And he is now the eighth-leading scorer of all time and highest-scoring Pittsburgh Penguin ever.

It took Crosby 1,384 games to get to 1,722 points and put himself one back of Mario Lemieux for the franchise record, and it took him only four minutes and 42 seconds to pass Lemieux after tying him in his 1,387th game.

And while it was momentous and glorious all at once, watching Crosby do it to help the Penguins barely squeak by the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in a shootout to avoid their ninth consecutive loss made you feel like there’s nothing left for him to do in their uniform other than watch the world he helped build continue to crumble to pieces.

Oh sure, Lemieux remains the franchise leader in goals, and Crosby remains destined to score 46 more to pass him if he just rides out the remainder of his two-year contract.

But what’s one more personal accomplishment mean to a player who’s always been about the team?

It was three years after saving the franchise with Lemieux on his wing that Crosby brought the Penguins back to prominence with their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 16 years. The first-overall pick in 2005 then lifted his first of three Cups a year later, in 2009.

Time went on, and the accolades kept piling up. There were the three Ted Lindsay Awards as the players’ MVP, the two Art Ross Trophies, the two Hart Trophies, the two Rocket Richard Trophies, the Mark Messier Leadership Award, the four first-team all-star nominations, the four second-team all-star nominations, and the back-to-back Conn Smythes for the two runs that netted the Penguins the Cup in 2016 and 2017.

Crosby’s greatness continued for years, while that of the Penguins began to erode in 2022. He has since put up seasons of 93, 94 and 91 points, respectively, but they haven’t given him a chance to continue his playoff legacy.

It’s all Crosby is still playing for at this point, and he’s almost singlehandedly keeping the hope alive that the Penguins seem destined to extinguish.

“I think that’s the motivation every time is to continue to win and try to make the playoffs,” he said before the Penguins were shutout by the Canadiens for an eighth straight loss Saturday. “It’s not easy, and that’s a given, but that’s the best time to be a hockey player, and I think that’s what you’re always working towards. I think early on there were probably lower expectations, but we had a great start and maybe surprised some people that way. But it’s so close. You see the standings, you see the teams; every point, every night matters. That’s what you love about playing this game is every night you’ve got to be on, but it’s part of the challenge.”

Crosby’s 20th goal of the season, which came in the eighth minute of play Sunday, got the Penguins on the board and tied him with Lemieux. His 17th assist, which came in the 13th minute of play, gave them a lead and him the franchise record. Much like his hot start propelled the Penguins to an 8-2-2 record through October, his contribution to Sunday’s win pushed them to within two points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

But it feels like a foregone conclusion he will keep going and they won’t, and the only thing he’ll still be chasing if he stays is a higher spot on the all-time points list and Lemieux’s goal record.

Crosby has already given the Penguins everything, and remarkably, ahead of his 39th birthday, he still has a chance to give them what they need more than anything while finally giving something to himself.

It’ll be up to Crosby to ask for a trade to continue pursuing the only thing that’s ever mattered to him — winning — and if he does it, he’ll give the Penguins a better chance of finding the next one than if he rode out the rest of his career with them.

No one thought there’d ever be another player like Lemieux in Pittsburgh.

If you had told a young Martin St. Louis that someone would come along and break his idol’s Penguins scoring record, he’d have said, “He’s going to need to play a lot of games.”

That’s what the Canadiens’ coach — who grew up just a couple kilometres away from where Lemieux was decimating scoring records in the then-named Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before becoming the greatest player he’d ever seen — said when he was asked about it on Saturday.

“What Sid has done is remarkable,” St. Louis added.

He didn’t need to say that what he’s doing right now is otherworldly.

Crosby is on pace to score 47 goals and 87 points, while the Penguins are on pace to finish on the bubble of the post-season.

It would leave them much further away from where they need to be to find the next Crosby.

They won the draft lottery to bring The Kid from Cole Harbour, N.S., to Pittsburgh, and he became the most successful man in franchise history long before this night. His departure could help them win another, on top of netting them some of the assets that could accelerate their resurgence.

But Sunday night is about Crosby’s history with the Penguins.