Pittsburgh Penguins History: Crosby caps off Rookie Season with Record
By Rob Joncas
On Apr. 17, 2006, with three assists, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, became the youngest player in NHL history to reach 100 points. Here’s a look at how he did it.
The Pittsburgh Penguins won the lottery in more than one way when their ping-pong ball was chosen by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Jul. 22, 2005.
Sidney Crosby would reverse the fortunes of a Penguins franchise that was one poke check away from closing up shop and moving to another city. (Sadly, a move to my hometown, Hamilton, ON did not come to pass, thanks to Jim Balsillie)
With a plethora of impact first-year players joining the league in 2005-06, (Alex Ovechkin, Henrik Lundqvist, and Ryan Miller to name a few) Crosby wasted little time in getting to work on a record-setting rookie season and a hall-of-fame career.
Here’s a look back at a few highlights from the season.
Random Facts
- Lost two teammates during the year to retirement – Mario Lemieux (heart), Ziggy Palffy (shoulder?)
- Finished second in Calder Trophy voting with 831 votes first-place votes., 444 less than Ovechkin’s total of 1275.
- The first rookie to earn 100 points and 100 penalty minutes
- Seventh rookie to score 100 points
- Finished 6th in the scoring race
- Set the team record for points scored by a rookie (102), surpassing Lemieux (100)
First of First’s
Crosby made his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 2005 vs. New Jersey. In the game, Crosby earned an assist and put three shots on goal in 15:50 (23 shifts) of ice time.
Crosby’s first goal and multi-point game occurred on Oct. 8, 2005, vs. Boston.
Crosby picked up three points, earning assists on Brooks Orpik and Ric Jackman‘s goals and scoring his first goal on the power-play.
Penguins fans should take delight in the fact that Crosby’s first four-point game came at the expense of the Washington Capitals in an 8-1 win.
Crosby earned the primary assists on both of Mark Recchi‘s powerplay goals and nabbed the secondary assist on Tomas Survoy’s seventh goal of the season.
Crosby scored his 24th goal of the season in the third period, Colby Armstrong and Eric Boguniecki picked up the assists.
A fun side note from this game is that Ryan Malone was awarded a penalty shot while killing a penalty. Malone made good on the opportunity and got his 11th goal of the season.
By the Numbers
Goals:
- 6 – Two-goal games
- 27 – One goal games
Points:
- 3 – Four-point games
- 8 – Three-point games
- 18 – Two-point games
- 30 – One point games
In the Bin
Crosby hit another milestone during his rookie season. He earned the most penalty minutes (PIM) of his career to date, with 110 PIM.
Crosby’s most penalized game of the season occurred on Jan. 7, 2006, vs. Atlanta. Crosby earned 8 PIM, from hooking, diving, unsportsmanlike conduct, and interference calls.
- 11 games with 4 PIM
- 29 games with 2 PIM
Crosby’s second-highest PIM total was in 2008-09, where he earned 76 PIM.
Record Setter
On Apr. 17, 2006, in a 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders, Crosby added three assists to his point total, to become the youngest player in NHL history to reach the 100 point mark.
Crosby at the age of 18 years, 253 days beat the record held by Dale Hawerchuk by 100 days.
Hawerchuck was 18 years, 353 days old when he set the record with the Winnipeg Jets in 1981-82.
Crosby finished the season with 39 goals and 102 points in 81 games and just missed matching Hawerchuck’s point total by one. Hawerchuck finished his rookie season with 103 points.
Shining Endorsements
Aside from the “value” Crosby added to the Pittsburgh Penguins, several companies were looking to sign the 18-year-old to boost sales for a wide range of products and services.
Crosby signed endorsement deals with the following companies before/during the season.
Keep in mind the deals earned six to seven figures EACH.
- Gatorade
- Telus Corp.
- Reebok International
- Upper Deck Company
Do you think the Pittsburgh Penguins would have stayed in town if they didn’t win the draft lottery? Share in the comment section below?