Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been named the NHL’s first star for the opening week of the 2022-23 regular season, it was announced today.
Crosby, the NHL’s current leading scorer with six points (2G-4A), recorded two three-point outings in the Penguins’ first two games of the season, tallying one goal and two assists in each game. This marked the second time that Crosby has recorded three points in each of Pittsburgh’s first two games of a season after first doing so in 2014-15 (3G-3A-6PTS in 2 GP).
In the Penguins’ home opener on October 13 against Arizona, Crosby scored the third-fastest goal by a Penguin in a season-opening game just 1:22 minutes in. His opening goal began a span of 5:10 minutes that saw three Penguins goals and marked the second-fastest three tallies to begin a season-opening game in the NHL’s modern era.
With another three points on October 15 against Tampa Bay, Crosby (1,415) surpassed Doug Gilmour (1,414) for sole possession of 19th place on the NHL’s all-time points list. Among the NHL’s top-20 scorers in league history, Crosby’s 1.27 career points-per-game average ranks fourth all-time. With two assists against Tampa Bay, Crosby (896) also broke into the NHL’s top-20 all-time assists list by surpassing Phil Housley (894) for sole possession of 20th place. Crosby’s 0.81 career assists-per-game average is the third-highest among the NHL’s top-20 assists list, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (1.32) and Mario Lemieux (1.13).
Crosby’s hot start gives him 423 multi-point efforts in his career, which is the most among all active players and 11th-most in NHL history. Throughout his career, Crosby has more multi-point efforts than he does in games where he is held off the scoresheet (322).
The Penguins have outscored their opponents 12-4 through their first two games of the 2022-23 season. Crosby began his 18th NHL season, the most in Penguins history, by factoring into 50% of the Penguins’ goals through two games (6/12).
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