Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby Opens up Ahead of Massive Road Game in Carolina
Photo credit: YouTube
The Penguins travel to Carolina for the second of three games, with captain Sidney Crosby just two steps away from reaching a major milestone.
Tonight, the Penguins travel to Carolina to play the Hurricanes for the second of three games, following a frustrating overtime defeat against the New York Islanders.
Since January 17, 2016, the Penguins have played 28 games against the Hurricanes overall, going 14-9-5. Three of Pittsburgh's last four games against Carolina have resulted in points (2-1-1). Since December 22, 2018, the Penguins have failed to win at Carolina (0-3-3). During the 0-3-3 run, five of the six games have been one-goal contests.
Sidney Crosby, who has scored five goals in his last three games, is only two goals away from becoming the 21st player in NHL history to reach 600 goals going into tonight's game. Crosby wants to become one of the few active players to reach this milestone, along with Alex Ovechkin of Washington (860).
Ovechkin is the only other active member of the 600-goal club, a group and accomplishment Crosby claimed he never thought he could achieve for himself, particularly on the night he began his journey to 600 in front of 17,132 spectators at the former Mellon Arena.
"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."
"You put so much pressure on yourself to produce and be good and there's a lot of expectations."
"You put so much pressure on yourself to produce and be good and there's a lot of expectations."
Tonight against the Hurricanes will mark Crosby's 211th game since scoring 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."
"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."
Game Notes for Tonight
Head coach Mike Sullivan has used a top line consisting of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Rickard Rakell in the last four games, and this trio has been among the most dangerous in the league. Roslovic-Aho-Svechnikov (CAR) is the only NHL combination that generates more shot attempts per 60 minutes than Pittsburgh's trio (minimum 60 minutes played together), according to moneypuck.com.
Erik Karlsson comes into tonight's game two points short of tying Doug Wilson for 16th place among defensemen in NHL history. Additionally, he is two assists away from tying Borje Salming for 15th place among blueliners on the NHL's all-time assist list. Additionally, he wants to tie Sakic for the sixth-most assists in league history by a player with a single franchise.
Crosby will play his 1,287th game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. If he doesn't hit the milestone tonight, perhaps he can make it happen against Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Friday.
| POLL | ||
7 NOVEMBRE | 50 ANSWERS Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby Opens up Ahead of Massive Road Game in Carolina Will Sidney Crosby hit his 600 goal milestone tonight? | ||
| Yes | 40 | 80 % |
| No | 10 | 20 % |
| List of polls | ||
Latest 10 stories
