Captain Sidney Crosby is heating up with five goals in his last seven games. With his next tally, he will surpass Bobby Hull for 18th place on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
The forward’s 1,045 total career assists are three shy of tying Gordie Howe for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time assists list.
Crosby notched his 60th point of the season on Sunday against New York (18G-42A). In doing so, he became the ninth player in NHL history to have 17 or more 60-point seasons, and he joins Alex Ovechkin as the only active players to accomplish this feat.
Crosby has done some of his best work against the Philadelphia Flyers throughout his career. In 88 career games, Crosby has 56 goals, 77 assists and 133 points. His 56 goals and his 133 points are the most in NHL history versus Philadelphia.
Crosby enters tonight's game with points in 17 of his last 19 games versus Philadelphia (14G-17A). Going back further, Crosby has 49 points (20G-29A) in his last 29 games against them, which includes points in 25 of those 29 games.
Rickard Rakell has been having a career year with the Penguins, leading the team in goals (25) and ranking second in points (49). He is one point away from the fourth 50-point season of his career.
Rakell enters tonight’s game just two points away from reaching 500 career NHL points. The forward is looking to become the 12th player from his 2011 draft class to reach 500 points and the third Swede to do it.
Rakell has notched 10 goals and 17 points (10G-7A) in 18 career games against the Flyers. He has points in six-consecutive games versus them (6G-4A). His six goals since Mar. 11, 2023 versus Philadelphia are tied for first among all active players.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson (2G-6A) enters tonight's game on an active seven-game point streak. It’s the longest point streak by a Penguin this season. Karlsson’s seven-game point streak is also the second longest in the NHL among defensemen behind John Carlson (8).
Karlsson notched another assist on Sunday, helping him hit the 40-point (6G-34A) plateau for the 12th time in his career. In doing so, he also surpassed Tomas Sandstrom for sole possession of 10th place on the all-time points list among Swedish players.
Only Nicklas Lidstrom (1,142) has more points all-time among Swedish-born defensemen. Karlsson is also one of just 14 defensemen in NHL history to have 12 or more 40-point campaigns. He and Brent Burns (12) are the only active blueliners to have accomplished this feat.
Philip Tomasino notched his second multi-point outing of the year (2A) over the weekend against Washington. The winger enters tonigh’s game with four points in his last six games (2G-2A) and only three Penguins have more points than him during the month of February.
Evgeni Malkin enters tonight’s game with points in back-to-back games (1G-2A) since returning from injury/the 4 Nations Break. With his next assist, Malkin will surpass Alex Delvecchio and Anze Kopitar for sole possession of the 13th-most assists with one franchise in NHL history.
Quick Hits
1) Bryan Rust has 25 points (11G-14A) in 33 career games against Philadelphia, which includes an active six-game point streak against them (4G-6A).
2) Since entering the league in 2006-07, no defenseman has more points against the Flyers than Kris Letang (52). He has points in 12 of his last 19 games (5G-11A) against Philadelphia. His plus-33 versus the Flyers is second in NHL history behind Bobby Orr (+37).
3) Kevin Hayes has four points (1G-3A) over his last five games.
4) Danton Heinen is riding an active three-game point streak (1G-2A). A point tonight would tie his career-long streak most recently set from Mar. 7-12, 2019 (5A). It would mark the fifth four-game point streak of his career.
5) The Penguins own an overall record of 399-92-49 when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin record a point in a game.
