Crosby ‘just really grateful’ for longevity, approaching 600 NHL goals with Penguins

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Sidney Crosby's recollection of his first NHL goal is spot on.

"I was just kind of hanging out by the side of the net against Boston," Crosby told NHL.com after the Pittsburgh Penguins practiced at UBS Arena on Wednesday.

Before getting to the side of the net, Crosby retrieved a bank pass off the end boards below the right face-off circle. He turned and brought the puck into the circle. He moved it to Mark Recchi in the slot. He followed his pass to the net.

"There was a big scrum and 'Rex' was digging for it," Crosby said. "Brian Leetch, I think, was trying to poke it in the scrum and poked it to the side. I was hanging out, kind of looking for it to come out. I was on the backdoor."

Recchi said, "I just tapped it over to him on that side. I just redirected it over there to him."

Crosby scored the power-play goal against the Boston Bruins at 18:32 of the second period on Oct. 8, 2005. It was his third NHL game. He was 18 years old.

The No. 1 pick by Pittsburgh at the 2005 NHL Draft, he will play his 1,287th game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FDSNSO, SN-PIT). Crosby has 598 goals, two away from becoming the 21st player in NHL history to score 600. He is 37 years old.

If he doesn't get 600 at Carolina, maybe he will Friday, when the Penguins visit Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

Ovechkin is the only other active player in the 600-goal club, a group and milestone Crosby said he never imagined as possible for himself, especially on that night at the old Mellon Arena when the 17,132 in attendance saw him start his journey to 600.

"I didn't know how long I was going to play," Crosby said. "You really just try to make the most of the opportunity because you really don't know how it's going to go, how long you're going to play. I'm just really grateful, to be honest with you."

Crosby vividly remembers the feeling he had when he scored against the Bruins.

"Just joy," he said. "I mean, you dream of scoring that first goal and it took me a couple games. I had a really good look in my first shift (in my NHL debut) against New Jersey in the slot against Marty Brodeur and didn't score there. Just nice to get it early and at home."

He felt relief too.

"Oh yeah, big time," Crosby said. "You put so much pressure on yourself to produce and be good and there's a lot of expectations."

There still are a lot of expectations on Crosby, who even at 37 is supposed to be the player to lead the Penguins back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after two straight seasons on the sidelines of the NHL postseason.

Remarkably, Crosby still is doing everything he can to at least give Pittsburgh a chance.

He enters Thursday riding a three-game goal streak (five goals). He has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 14 games this season. He scored 42 goals and had 94 points last season, 33 and 93 in 2022-23.

"He just keeps on going," Recchi said. "It's really fun to watch. It's up to him how long he wants to play with the way he takes care of himself and how good he is. To continue to score like this and get to this number, it is amazing."

As is his consistency.

Crosby scored his 100th goal in his 219th NHL game. He needed just 178 games to go from 100 to 200, which was his fastest 100-goal stretch. He needed 227 games to go from 200 to 300, 218 games to go from 300 to 400, and 239 to go from 400 to 500, which he scored Feb. 15, 2022.

The game against the Hurricanes will be his 211th since he scored his 500th goal.

"When people think of Sidney Crosby, I don't think that the first thing that goes through their mind is scoring goals or being a goal-scorer," Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson said. "He's coming up on 600, which is very impressive and very few players get to that mark. I've played with a lot of good goal-scorers, and they haven't even been close to touching 600. People don't realize how efficient he really is in scoring goals."

Karlsson brings up an important point; Crosby has always been known as a playmaker and, even though he may not like the description, the most skilled grinder in NHL history, arguably the best to ever play at or below the goal line.

He has never been known as a pure goal-scorer in the true sense of the moniker the way Ovechkin is, or Brett Hull was.

Even Crosby admits “pure goal-scorer” doesn't personify his game.

"I like to score goals, it's something that I take pride in, but I don't think it's naturally something that I have," Crosby said. "I don't have the hardest shot, but I trust my shot and I try to be accurate with it. I wouldn't say I'm someone who just patrols the slot looking to be that trigger guy and rip it. I take pride in scoring, but naturally I'm more of a playmaker."

And yet, here Crosby is on the precipice of joining one of the elite goal-scoring clubs in NHL history and still producing at an elite level.

How?

Well, isn't it obvious by now?

"Sid is so good around the net, and you see how many goals he scored off rebounds," Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin said. "His backhand is unbelievable. He doesn't have a great 100 mile-per-hour shot, but he knows where to be for the next play. He's really smart. He's just a great player around the net. Around the net, he's the best."

Recchi said it goes back to Crosby's commitment to playing on the inside.

"He's not afraid to go there," Recchi said. "When he gets on the rush he can shoot the puck, but he knows where to go to score goals. I guess he is a natural scorer because he knows how to score goals. The puck finds him."

Like it did on his first NHL goal all those years ago. Like it did on his 598th goal, a backhand from between the circles and below the hash marks in the second period in a 4-3 shootout loss at the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

The puck found Crosby in the slot or to the side of the net on so many of his 596 goals in between Nos. 1 and 598, including at the side of the net for his 500th goal.

He could score Nos. 599 and 600 the same way.

"He does everything, small details, and it helps him to score," Malkin said. "You don't see him score from the blue line, but he's a really smart player and he knows where you need to be to score. Every game he has scoring chances because he reads the game so well."

NHL.com independent correspondent Wes Crosby contributed to this report