This is the quickest Sidney Crosby has scored 10 goals in a season

Sidney Crosby has played nine games this season.

He has 10 goals.

Let’s consider that for a moment. The current NHL goal-scoring leader is Patrik Laine with 11; he’s played 16 games. After him, it’s Crosby, David Pastrnak, and Mark Scheifele all tied with 10, but Pastrnak in 13 games, and Scheifele in 16.

And with Laine and Scheifele on the same team, clearly, they’re both feeling it. The next Penguin with the most goals? Evgeni Malkin, with eight in 15 games played.

Crosby is still basically in a league of his own this season. True, his 28.6 shooting percentage is the highest of this group, and almost double his career 14.6%.

But still: this is unexpectedly fast for Crosby. Via the Elias Sports Bureau:

This is the quickest (in terms of games played) that Crosby has reached double-figures in goals scored in any of his 12 seasons in the NHL. The fewest games it took Crosby to score his first 10 goals in any previous season was 16 in 2010-11. Crosby had scored 32 goals in 41 games that season when he was sidelined by a concussion in early January that kept him from playing again until November.

It sure looks like Sid isn’t going away any time soon.