Rocket Man

With Sidney Crosby just one away from reaching 500 career goals, it probably comes as no surprise that his fellow Penguins franchise players Evgeni Malkin (108) and Kris Letang (101) have collected the most assists over that body of work.

"They say you can't give a bad pass to a good player," Letang said with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure my passes are not always perfect, but the fact that he manages to get his shot off at different angles, he always finds a way to get it there. And obviously, he has a really high hockey IQ. He sees things that we don't necessarily see. He's able to change his angle. He gets his shot off really quick, and he has a quick release that can fool the goalie also. It's a combination of a lot of things."
While Crosby's goal-scoring ability tends to be a bit underratedaround the league, the numbers speak for themselves. The 34-year-old is set to become the second active player behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin, and the 46th player in NHL history, to reach this milestone.
Crosby will also join Mario Lemieux (690) as the only players in Penguins history to score 500 goals with the team. Crosby has led the Penguins in goals nine seasons, a feat that only Lemieux (10) has accomplished more.
Crosby has also twice captured the Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded annually to the leading goal scorer in the NHL - which is an especially remarkable achievement considering some of the pure snipers that this league boasts. Starting, of course, with Ovechkin - one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history - and continuing with guys like Steven Stamkos, Auston Matthews and David Pastrnak.
Crosby won in 2010 after surpassing the 50-goal mark for the first and only time in his career to date, and again in 2017 after collecting 44 tallies. Some of his linemates from those seasons - Bill Guerin (15), Chris Kunitz (58), Pascal Dupuis (31), Jake Guentzel (44) and Conor Sheary (19) - are also high on the list of players who have collected assists on Crosby goals.
In honor of Crosby's upcoming milestone, we talked with those players, taking a look back at those award-winning campaigns and the keys to setting up a generational talent like Sid.

2009-10

What sets Crosby apart from everyone else, and makes him the standard bearer of both his team and the league, is how hard he works at every aspect of his game to sustain his elite level of play.
And during the early years of his career in particular, Crosby became famous for honing in on a specific area that he could improve during the summers, and quickly excelling in it. That drew admiration - and maybe a little bit of jealousy - from his peers.
"Like Sid was not the best one on faceoffs. Well, he became the best one the year after," Dupuis said before adding with a grin, "As soon as he's working on one part of his game, it seems like this guy is being the best at it right away. It pisses people off (laughs)."
After Crosby lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time in the summer of 2009, his teammates remember him returning to Pittsburgh with more of a shoot-first mentality. Kunitz said they could tell right away that's what Crosby focused on during his offseason training.
"I think just at the beginning of the year, he definitely had a purpose to shoot more, put pucks to the net more and have that willingness," Kunitz said. "It was definitely pointed. Like he definitely wanted to come out and be a more of a goal scorer."
Dupuis said that Crosby always possessed a good shot - his backhand is stronger than some players' forehands! - so it was more about the mentality than anything. He remembers Crosby recruiting teammates and coaches to go out with him before practices began so that he could get as many reps as possible.
"He would jump on the ice and would find I think it was (assistant coach) Tony Granato, who was there passing him pucks all the time," Dupuis said. "Guys were passing him pucks before practices so he could shoot from everywhere. He really put the emphasis on shooting more that year, and it paid off."
"Whereas before, he would spend time maybe passing or working on different things," Kunitz added.
Guerin and Kunitz were the two players who spent the most time on Crosby's wings that year. And whenever Kunitz was hurt - he ended up missing about two months total - Dupuis would slot in. He said one of the keys to collecting assists alongside Sid is not being too fancy.
"I played with Sid because I created turnovers and I won pucks," Dupuis said. "Not because I was like going and dancing guys and trying to find him back doors. I never really did that. I still don't do it in beer league (laughs). Sid trusted how I created offense. He was never a cheater on the ice. But I think knowing that I would win the battles on the walls and I would get it out of the zone, he could be a little more on the offense."
The goal that stands out the most to Dupuis is Crosby's 50th, which came in the regular-season finale at Nassau Coliseum when he scored a power-play goal in the first period of their 6-5 overtime win over the New York Islanders. Crosby became the first Penguins player to reach the 50-goal mark since Jaromir Jagr in 2002, with his teammates mobbing him afterward to celebrate.
"The 50th one was special that year, just because that's something that he really tried to get," Dupuis said. "I'm on the puck for that one there. I think I assisted on that [Dupuis earned the secondary helper]. I probably chipped it up the wall somewhere, somehow and it ended up in the net."
Crosby then got his 51st after converting a breakaway in the second period, which tied him with Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos for the Rocket Richard Trophy, which he collected at the NHL Awards that June before sending out tokens of gratitude to his wingers later in the summer.
"I would always give him a hard time about how good of a passer I was. I think I had 24 assists that year," Guerin said. "So it was the middle of the summer and I got a package at my house. I opened it up, and it was a brand-new iPad. I'm like, what the hell is this? And there was a note from Sid in there. And it just said, 'Never scored 50 until I played with you.' And he told me thanks. I just thought it was so cool."
Dupuis and Kunitz also received gifts from their captain following that first Rocket Richard-winning season.
"He was happy that it happened, and he thanked us," Dupuis said before adding with a chuckle, "And the fact that he still wanted to play with us the year after, that was a big gesture."

2016-17

Crosby's second Rocket Richard-winning season also came following a Stanley Cup victory (his second), and this time, preceding another.
But when he returned to Pittsburgh that fall, there wasn't a sense that the captain had adjusted anything in his game. It seemed like more of a domino effect for Crosby, who scored in his season debut on Oct. 25 after missing the first six games of the season with a concussion suffered at the World Cup of Hockey, and just kept going from there.
"Maybe he just had that confidence that he was gonna go and score every game, or at least have a lot of good chances," Sheary said. "I mean, he's usually a pass-first guy, but I think when the puck's going in, maybe he was shooting a little bit more. But I don't think I remember anything specific that he changed or did differently that was leading to him scoring more goals."
For most of the season, Sheary was Crosby's most consistent linemate, with winger Patric Hornqvist spending a lot of time there as well - and of course, the captain still got reps alongside his old running mate Kunitz. Crosby's primary assist on Kunitz's goal on Feb. 16, 2017 was the 1,000th point of his illustrious career (with the five-year anniversary of that milestone fast approaching).
But when Mike Sullivan decided to try Jake Guentzel alongside Crosby and Sheary on March 5 against Buffalo, the spark was obvious. "Sid and the Kids" officially became a line on March 10 vs. Edmonton, and they were absolutely red-hot down the stretch.
Shortly after Guentzel started skating alongside Crosby regularly, the captain scored a goal that Guentzel immediately named as his favorite, with zero hesitation, on March 17 against the Sabres.
"One-handed against Buffalo," Guentzel said. "I got hurt that game, but I remember that one."
It was a one-of-a-kind goal for a one-of-a-kind player, with Crosby scoring a number of unique goals that season in particular.Heended up recording 44 goals in 75 games to finish as the league's top goal scorer for the second time.
"It just felt like everything was going in for him," Guentzel said. "It's just kind of crazy how it works, like when you're scoring, it just kind of feels like everything you're shooting is going in and the bounces are going your way. He had 44 that year, that's a lot of goals. That's pretty special, just to be a part of that my first year."
While Crosby's linemates may not have gotten iPads in the mail that summer, they ended up with the greatest gift of all - lifting Lord Stanley's Cup. And now that Guentzel has played with Crosby for a few years now, the fact that he was able to capture a Rocket Richard along the way with some of the pure goal scorers in this league makes the achievement even more special.
"That's what's cool, is because he's known as a pass-first player," Guentzel said. "I think it just shows how good of a player he really is when he can score that many goals, and it's just special to see. He's just the best ever."