This past week, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby set a franchise record when he broke Mario Lemieux’s record for most assists.
On Tuesday, he set an NHL record when he won his 15,183rd face-off in the second period of their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
That makes him the NHL’s all-time face-off king, breaking a record that had previously been held by former Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron.
There are two things about this record that need to be discussed.
The first is that the NHL only tracked face-off wins starting with the 1997-98 season, so it is entirely possible, if not likely, that somebody in NHL history has more of them. We just do not know because it was never consistently tracked. It is kind of like the sack record in the NFL where it was only an “unofficial” stat and the numbers varied from team-to-team.
The second is that when Crosby first entered the NHL, and for the first part of his career, face-offs were widely considered his single biggest weakness as a player. Perhaps his only real weakness as a player. But he consistently committed himself to improving at them and getting better, and he did so to the point where he has now won more of them than any player since the NHL started tracking them.
It might not be the biggest record in hockey history, but it is still a big part of the game.
Crosby has a chance to break another NHL record this season if he can maintain a point-per-game average. If he does so, he will break a record he is currently tied with Wayne Gretzky for most consecutive seasons with averaging a point per game. Crosby is currently at 19 consecutive seasons. He entered play on Tuesday just ahead of that point-per-game pace with 42 points in the Penguins’ first 41 games this season.
