captain of the penguins Sidney Crosby was named the NHL’s first star for the opening week of the 2022-23 regular season, it was announced today.
Crosby, the current NHL leading scorer with six points (2G-4A), recorded two three-point outings in the Penguins’ first two games of the season, recording a goal and two assists in each game. It was the second time Crosby had recorded three points in each of Pittsburgh’s first two games of a season after first doing so in 2014-15 (3G-3A-6PTS in 2 GP).
In the Penguins’ home opener on October 13 against Arizona, Crosby scored a Penguin’s third fastest goal in a season opener at just 1:22 minutes. His first goal started a 5:10-minute period that saw three Penguins goals and scored the second fastest of three goals to start a season opener in the NHL’s modern era.
With three more points on Oct. 15 against Tampa Bay, Crosby (1,415) passed Doug Gilmour (1,414) for the sole possession of 19th on the NHL’s all-time points list. Among the NHL’s top 20 scorers in league history, Crosby’s career average of 1.27 points per game ranks fourth all-time. With two assists against Tampa Bay, Crosby (896) also broke into the NHL’s top 20 all-time assists by passing Phil Housley (894) for the lone possession for 20th place. Crosby’s career average of 0.81 assists per game is third highest among the NHL’s top 20 assists, behind Wayne Gretzky (1.32) and Mario Lemieux (1.13).
Crosby’s strong start gives him 423 multi-point efforts in his career, which is the most among any active player and 11th in NHL history. Throughout his career, Crosby has made more multi-point efforts than he has made in games where he is kept off the scoresheet (322).
The Penguins outscored opponents 12-4 in their first two games of the 2022-23 season. Crosby entered his 18th NHL season, the longest in Penguins history, tallying 50% of Penguins goals in two games (6/12).
