Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have created many milestones and memories together over the past twenty years as key players for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Wednesday night against the Buffalo Sabres, they both reached significant milestones. Malkin became the 48th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals, while Crosby became the 10th player to reach 1,600 regular-season points.
Crosby scored the winning goal in overtime, leading to a 6-5 victory over Buffalo.
“I really wanted to score (the 500th goal) last year,” Malkin said. “All summer, I was probably thinking too much about it. It was a long way to 500 and I’m glad to finally do it.”
When Crosby scored his 500th NHL goal in 2022, Malkin assisted him. On Wednesday, Crosby returned the favor by passing the puck between his legs from behind the net to Malkin, who was sitting on the ice when he flipped it past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
The entire bench rushed to congratulate Malkin, and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. “It was a pretty awesome goal,” Crosby said. “I had a front-row seat watching him do that. I’ll have a great memory of that one.”
Malkin, who has the third-most goals in Penguins history with 500 in 1,150 games, is the 20th player in NHL history to score 500 goals with a single team. The Penguins selected the 38-year-old Malkin as the second overall pick in the 2004 Draft, and he has teamed up with Crosby to win three Stanley Cup championships for Pittsburgh.
“When you look at the championships the Penguins have won while they’ve been here, their fingerprints are all over it,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “When you win Stanley Cups, it has a way of strengthening relationships.”
Malkin joins Crosby (592), Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (853), and Nashville’s Steven Stamkos (555) as the only active players with 500 goals. Stamkos achieved this with Tampa Bay. Malkin also becomes one of the only Russian-born players in NHL history to reach this milestone, alongside Ovechkin.
Pittsburgh is the second team in NHL history, after Montreal, to have three players with 500 career goals.
The Penguins’ stars had a strong performance against Buffalo, combining for seven points. Crosby scored a goal and had two assists. Malkin contributed a goal and three assists, bringing his total to 11 points in five games and showing no signs of slowing down.
“I think (Malkin) has had a really strong start to the season,” Sullivan said. “When he’s at his best, the puck seems to follow him around and that’s what he’s doing right now.”
Crosby reached his 1,600th regular-season point with a secondary assist on Bryan Rust’s power-play goal at 11:01 of the first period. The 37-year-old Crosby is the first player to hit this milestone since Jaromir Jagr on October 6, 2011.
Crosby took 1,277 games to reach 1,600 points, which is the fifth-fastest in NHL history. Now in his 20th NHL season, Crosby is seven goals away from 600. He is also 39 points shy of tying Hall of Famer Joe Sakic for ninth place in NHL history.
Crosby, who was picked first overall by Pittsburgh in the 2005 Draft, is 121 points behind Penguins legend Mario Lemieux for eighth place in league history. Lemieux holds the franchise record with 1,723 points.
For one more night, Malkin and Crosby were the stars of the show. “We probably deserved to share this night together,” Malkin said. “It’s a great story.”
