Crosby’s 400th multi-point game places him among hockey’s greats

Grab your chisel— it’s time to add a familiar face to the ever-growing Mt. Rushmore of hockey.

On December 14, by following up his assist on Mike Matheson’s game-winning second-period goal with a dish to Brian Dumoulin in the first 30 seconds of the third frame, Sidney Crosby padded a 5-2 Penguins win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens— and also became the 14th player in NHL history to notch 400 multi-point games.

The first multi-point game of Crosby’s career came during his third NHL outing, a clash with the visiting Boston Bruins at Mellon Arena on Oct. 8, 2005. The 18-year-old rookie set up back-to-back Penguins goals by Ric Jackman and Brooks Orpik; then, Crosby tapped in Mark Recchi’s rebound for the first goal of his NHL career. The Penguins ended up falling to the Bruins in overtime, 7-6.

16 years later, let’s see who Crosby’s compatriots past this milestone are.

Lemieux and Gretzky stand apart on this list— these superstars put up at least two points in over half of the NHL games they ever played, marking two of the most dominant careers the league has ever seen.

Still, Crosby is no slouch. Only six players with 400 multi-point outings have contributed to multiple goals during at least a third of their NHL appearances, and Crosby is one of them. He has notched multiple points in 38% of his 1,055 games played, making him the fourth-most efficient player in history (following only Gretzky, Lemieux and Marcel Dionne) to reach the milestone.

Let’s take a look at how those 400 multi-point games break down (via Stathead and Natural Stat Trick):

• Crosby’s overall record breaks down to 490 goals, 852 assists and 1342 points. 995 of those points came during multi-point outings.
• In 400 multi-point games, Crosby recorded outings with six points (2 times), five points (4), four points (28), three points (119) and two points (247).
• Crosby has been most likely to rack up multiple points against division opponents, with most of his multi-point outings coming against the Islanders (39 times), the Flyers (34), the Capitals (28), the Rangers (27), the Devils (27) and the Sabres (20). His most likely non-division opponent to stack up goals against has been the Maple Leafs (19).
• These 400 multi-point games include 71 multi-goal outings.
• In 41 of these 400 games, Crosby scored the game-winning goal.
• In games where Crosby has registered multiple points, the Penguins have a record of 243-141-16.

Only two active NHL players (Joe Thornton, 391 multi-point outings in 1,698 games; Alex Ovechkin, 388 in 1,226) stand within view of this milestone. The next closest is another someone you might have heard of— Evgeni Malkin, whose next multi-point outing will be the 300th of his career.

Of the 14 players in NHL history who have put up 400 multi-point games, 12 of them are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Only two (Jaromir Jagr and Crosby) are not yet eligible— but it seems safe to say they’ve earned their spots in the Hall when the time comes.