Sidney Crosby Already Amongst the NHL All-Time Best
Sidney Crosby, the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins still has over 50% of his professional career still ahead of him. However, there exists a growing consensus he has already locked in his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Mike Rupp a former teammate of Crosby’s, said he would vote Crosby into the Hockey Hall if Crosby ended his career today.
Former goalie in the NHL and a longtime analyst on television for hockey Eddie Olczyk and Crosby’s first coach in the NHL said there was no doubt or hesitation on his part that Crosby is a Hall of Famer already.
Olczyk said that the only blemish he might consider on the resume of Crosby is the disappointing finishes Pittsburgh have had since 2009 when they won the Stanley Cup, especially last season when Crosby scored just one goal with nine points in his 13 playoff games while playing with a sore wrist.
Olczyk said the coaches can be blamed, but it falls on the best players shoulders.
Last week, Crosby played in his 600th game in the NHL and has scored 825 points, which is ninth all time for players over their first 600 games in the league. All eight of the player ahead of him on that list are Hall of Famers.
Crosby on Thursday night had two goals in a shootout win of 5-4 over the Ottawa Senator. He has 827 points, which is 135th all time in and fifteenth amongst active players. Those numbers are more impressive when considering the number of games Crosby has played.
Following his game on Friday, Crosby was 160th amongst active players in the number of games played and tied for 1,097 all time. That makes the Pittsburgh forward fifth in points all time per game with 1.376 with just Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Bobby Orr ahead of him.
Rupp said it was even more impressive considering Crosby has never played regularly with another forward considered an elite scorer in the NHL.
Crosby’s linemates of recent have included Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz and this season David Perron.
Rupp compared Crosby to Tom Brady, who has won Super Bowls while surrounded by players that are not up to his caliber, but makes them better by playing with him.
Crosby said Rupp is that good and makes all of the players around him better and still scores the points he does.
Olczyk believes that if Crosby played with an elite goal scorer on his wing he would have scored 20 points more each season. Many wonder why even talk about this now as at least half of Crosby’s career is ahead of him, but he is that good and the second half of his career could set new records no one has seen since the†Great One†played
