As has been the story for many of them in his career against the Philadelphia Flyers, it was Sidney Crosby’s night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain led the charge with four points against his favorite team, and the Penguins defeated the Flyers, 7-3, in their final game before the NHL holiday break.
Pittsburgh is now 9-3-1 in its last 13 games, and they go into the holiday hiatus just one point back of the Ottawa Senators for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s big for us, especially playing a team like Philly,” said Rickard Rakell, who scored the Penguins’ second goal during the first period for his team-leading 16th tally of the season. “We know that we’re going to play them a lot down the stretch. We’re just feeling good about ourselves going into this break, just regrouping and getting away from it a little bit… then just come back even better.”
And this victory would not have been possible without Crosby.
He collected an assist on the game’s opening goal by Bryan Rust – his 15th of the season and 10th goal in 13 games – and also picked up the secondary assist on Michael Bunting’s first goal of the game on the power play near the end of the first period.
Then, on the next goal – Philip Tomasino’s fourth of the season and another power play goal for the Penguins – Crosby tied Mario Lemieux for the all-time franchise record in assists with 1,033.
He also tied Lemieux for the franchise record in three-point nights with 183:
“I dreamed of playing in the NHL, and I’m grateful for that, for all these years,” Crosby said. “But I don’t think about where I am on the list. But to be with Mario, though, is pretty cool. I never would have expected that. So, that’s just a bonus.”
Head coach Mike Sullivan said Pittsburgh has been lucky to witness two of the greatest to ever play the game over the last 40 years.
“Mario’s one of the greatest players of all time, as is Sid” Sullivan said. “The milestones these guys reach… there’s very few players in the history of the game that have reached these milestones that Mario and Sid and some of our guys have reached here most recently. I just think it’s one more piece of evidence to suggest that Sid is one of the very best players of all time, and as we know, Mario is as well.”
He continued: “Their legacy just continues to grow. I think it’s pretty cool that you have two generational players in one organization that had a little bit of crossover. But, to have those two players play for your team…