With an assist on a Chris Kunitz goal, Sidney Crosby broke the 100-point barrier for the fifth time in his NHL career and the first since the 2009-10 season (injuries and work stoppages have conspired against the star hitting the century mark in between).
Here’s the assist:
As of this writing, Crosby has 36 goals and 64 assist for those 100 points.
And with an assist on that goal, Sidney Crosby officially has 100 points! pic.twitter.com/cxeh1iqFMs
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 1, 2014
Not only is Crosby, 26, the first NHL player to hit 100 points in 2013-14 ... he’s likely to be the only one to do so this season. Ryan Getzlaf is currently the only other player with more than 80 points at the moment (83 points in 71 games), and his Ducks only have six games left this season.
Ignoring the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, here’s a look at some recent years’ 100-point producers.
2011-12: Evgeni Malkin (109)
2010-11: Daniel Sedin (104)
2009-10: Henrik Sedin (112), Crosby (109), Alex Ovechkin (109) and Nicklas Backstrom (101)
As you can see, 100-point producers are an increasingly rare sight, but the bigger concern for league scoring might be that most aren’t even getting very close. In 2011-12, Steven Stamkos had 97 points and Claude Giroux hit 93; Getzlaf might be the only other playing to eclipse 90 points, and that’s assuming the Ducks don’t give him a breather. (That’s not to say someone like Giroux couldn’t jump to 90; but most players are at a point-per-game or less.)
If you look at top scorers as a barometer for a league, then things are pretty dry for the NHL right now. But at least there’s Crosby.