Pittsburgh Penguins History: Crosby Clinches First Art Ross Trophy

On this day in Pittsburgh Penguins history, Apr. 7, 2007, Sidney Crosby locked up his first of two Art Ross Trophies with a career-high 120 points.

Without looking at his statistics it is hard to fathom that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby peaked in terms of point production in his second season in the NHL.

With 36 goals and 120 points in 79 games played (GP), Crosby edged out the reigning scoring champion Joe Thorton by six points and became the youngest player in league history to be named scoring champion.

Crosby also became the youngest player in league history to score 200 points, besting Wayne Gretzky‘s record by 140 days.

In the broader scope of his career, Crosby has broken the 100 point barrier six times in 15 seasons.

Special Teams

Although Crosby did not lead the league in goals or assists, it was his work on the powerplay where he truly excelled.

With 13 goals and 61 points with the extra attacker, which accounted for 51% of his total offense on the season, Crosby helped the Penguins powerplay function at a rate of 20.30%, which was good for 5th in the league.

It was a vast improvement from Crosby’s rookie season where the powerplay operated with an 18.99% conversion rate, which put the Penguins 25th in the league.

The Penguins led the league in powerplay opportunities (463) and powerplay goals (94).

Crosby also became more disciplined in his second season, seeing his penalty minutes drop by nearly half from his rookie season.

• 2005-06 = 110 PIM
• 2006-07 = 60 PIM

The closest Crosby came to matching his PIM total from 2005-06, was in 2008-09, where he earned 76 PIM.

Offensive breakdown

Crosby recorded his first career hattrick on Oct. 28, 2006, in an 8-2 lashing of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Crosby’s longest point streak of the season lasted 10-games from Dec. 2, 2006, to Dec. 21, 2006, which saw him collect 7 goals and 23 points.

During the midst of the point streak, Crosby had his first 6 point game, scoring 1 goal and 5 assists, on Dec. 13, 2006, vs. Philadelphia. Maybe this was the birth of the “Crosby sucks” chants.

Breakdown of points:

• One: 6 point game
• Four: 4 point games
• Ten: 3 point games
• Twenty-three: 2 point games
• Twenty-two: 1 point games

Overall, Crosby’s performance, along with the stable rapidly developing talent (Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury) helped excel the transformation of the Penguins to a 47-point improvement from the 2005-06 season, which was the fourth-best single-season turnaround in NHL history.

Pittsburgh also made their first postseason appearance in four seasons vs. Ottawa.

Although the Penguins dropped the series in five games, it would kickstart one of the most successful eras in team history.

Fill the Case

Along with Art Ross trophy, Crosby also took home the Hart and Pearson Trophies at the NHL Awards in Toronto, ON. which capped off one of the most productive seasons of his career.