Penguins\u2019 4-3 shootout win<\/a> against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t think you can put a stat line or a number on what he means to this team and to hockey, so yeah, in my mind, he\u2019s still No. 1,\u201d Crosby said.<\/p>\n
Crosby, who began the night one point behind Lemieux, now has 645 goals and 1,079 assists for 1,724 points in 1,387 games. It also moved him past Lemieux for the eighth-most points in NHL history.<\/p>\n
Crosby tipped Erik Karlsson\u2019s point shot at 7:58 of the first period for a goal to tie the record. He then broke the mark with 7:20 left in the period when his shot on a power play hit Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell tapped the rebound behind Jakub Dobes. <\/p>\n
Crosby, Rust and Rakell embraced behind the net after the goal and the Penguins spilled over the bench to congratulate their captain. Later in the period, a 30-second video message recorded by Lemieux congratulating Crosby on the accomplishment was played.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew when we played together in 2005 that you were going to be a very special player and accomplish a lot of great things in your career,\u201d Lemieux said in the message. \u201cHere we are 20 years later, you\u2019re now one of the best to ever play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
A hush fell over the arena as fans intently listened to Lemieux\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing the crowd go quiet when Mario\u2019s message come on, that was pretty special,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t understand the impact he\u2019s had here and you were here tonight, I think you understand it a little bit better given how quiet it got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemieux, the Hall of Famer, who also owned the franchise following his second retirement, became the Penguins\u2019 all-time points leader, surpassing then-assistant coach Rick Kehoe on Jan. 20, 1989, when Crosby was 17 months old. Lemieux, who was in the lineup when Crosby recorded his first NHL point, finished his career with 1,723 points in 915 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have so much appreciation for having the opportunity to play with him, live with him and learn from him,\u201d said Crosby, who lived with Lemieux and his family early in his career. \u201cYou grow up watching him, you never expect you\u2019re going to make it to the NHL let alone play with him. He was a big part of helping me out and a huge influence on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby, the No. 1 overall pick in 2005, is the seventh outright all-time points leader in 58 years of the franchise\u2019s history and the ninth active player to lead a franchise in points. Crosby previously broke Lemieux\u2019s record for most assists in franchise history last Dec. 29 against the New York Islanders. Crosby is 45 goals behind Lemieux\u2019s franchise record of 690.<\/p>\n
Crosby is now third on the NHL\u2019s all-time points list with a single franchise, behind only Steve Yzerman (1,755) and Gordie Howe (1,809), both with Detroit.<\/p>\n
Crosby also passed Phil Esposito (449) for sole possession of the ninth-most even-strength goals in NHL history. He also tied Adam Oates for the eighth-most assists in NHL history in the first period. Crosby, who has 20 goals this season, achieved his 18th 20-goal season. Only six players in NHL history have more.<\/p>\n
The biggest number on Sunday was Lemieux\u2019 franchise scoring record.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving an opportunity to play on the same line and connect on a few goals \u2026 those are things that I\u2019ll always remember,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cThe impact he\u2019s had on me, this team and hockey in general is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/NHL<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 As far as Sidney Crosby is concerned, Mario Lemieux is still No. 1 in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[11309,11288,11310,11308,1251,5,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-374033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-ap-online-sports-headlines","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","11":"tag-ap-top-news-sports","12":"tag-associated-press","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-penguins","16":"tag-pittsburgh","17":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","18":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115780984698636340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}