Tim Benz: As Sidney Crosby nears 500 goals, a look at how he got there, his chances of breaking Mario Lemieux's team record

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby now needs just one more goal to reach 500 for his career. That’s after getting No. 499 during a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

For Crosby, that would make him the leading goal-scorer for 17 of the NHL’s 32 franchises.

Fun fact: No active player in the NHL has more points against Boston than Sidney Crosby. pic.twitter.com/WLZC7QK4Mc

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 9, 2022

Not the Penguins, though. Far from it. Because not only did Mario Lemieux get to 500. He got to 690. Only two men — Detroit’s Gordie Howe (786) and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin (759) — hold a team-high total that is greater than Lemieux’s was in Pittsburgh. (Note: Steve Yzerman also had 692 with Detroit, but that still trails Howe’s franchise mark.)

How long will it take Crosby to get to Lemieux’s milestone? Can he get there?

Well, given the amount of time Crosby has missed and the choppy nature of how NHL schedules have played out due to the pandemic, let’s look at Crosby’s goal total since the start of the 2017-18 season.

In other words, since the Penguins last won the Stanley Cup.

Crosby has totaled 117 goals in 292 regular season games (0.40 goals per game). That’s a rate of 32.9 goals per 82-game regular season. At that pace, we’re talking about roughly six more seasons at 82 games per season to get Crosby the next 192 goals needed to surpass Lemieux’s team record of 690. That would mean him playing until he is 40 years old.

Difficult. Not impossible. That’s how old Lemieux was when he was able to play 26 games before retiring in January 2006.

If you factor in playoff goals, the margin is a bit wider. Lemieux has 76 of those in 107 games. Crosby has 69 in 174 games.

In case you are wondering, Evgeni Malkin has 64 in 170 playoff games. Jaromir Jagr had 65 in 140 with the Penguins alone, 78 in his career.

Malkin’s regular season goal total is 429. Jagr retired (we think) with 766.

Now that we’ve thoroughly hopped back in time, let’s see how Crosby and Lemieux each got to their milestone goals.

Goal 100

Lemieux: Oct. 22, 1986. A power play goal against Buffalo. Set up by Moe Mantha and Kevin LaVallee at 14:53 of the third period against goalie Jacques Cloutier during a 5-4 overtime win.

Crosby: Oct. 18, 2008. A goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs at 12:15 of the third period during a 4-1 win at Mellon Arena. Set up by Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, beating Curtis Joseph.

Goal 200

Lemieux: March 1, 1988 against Minnesota. Set up by Paul Coffey at 3:03 of the first period against goalie Don Beaupre during an 8-3 win.

Crosby: Nov. 27, 2010. A goal as part of a hat trick at Mellon Arena en route to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames. Set up by Letang and Paul Martin, beating goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

Goal 300

Lemieux: April 2, 1989. A rare overtime empty net goal in Philadelphia as the Flyers pulled Ron Hextall in order to avoid a tie during the regular season finale and play for a win to better their playoff positioning. Troy Loney got the assist at 3:38 of overtime during a Penguins’ 6-5 win capping a comeback from down 5-1.

Crosby: April 1, 2015. A goal also against the Philadelphia Flyers at 3:29 of the first period to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead en route to a 4-1 victory. Set up by Patric Hornqvist and Ian Cole, beating goalie Steve Mason.

Goal 400

Lemieux: March 14, 1992. A second-period power play goal at 8:01 set up by Kevin Stevens and Ron Francis as part of a 6-3 loss in Toronto. Grant Fuhr was the goaltender.

Crosby: Feb 11, 2018. The first of two goals at 3:31 of the first period to make the score 1-1 on the way to a 4-1 win in St. Louis. Assisted by Conor Sheary, beating goaltender Jake Allen.

Goal 500

Lemieux: Oct. 26, 1995 versus the New York Islanders. His second goal of the night on Long Island at 17:13 of the third period on the way to a 7-5 victory. Tomas Sandstrom and Dmitri Mironov on the assists. Tommy Soderstrom in net for the Isles.

As we await Sid's 500th, in case you wondering...or even if you weren't...here's Mario's 500th. 10/26/1995 vs NYI. Sandstrom & Mironov on the assists. Soderstom in net for the Isles https://t.co/J0knYT43lb

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) February 9, 2022

Goal 600

Lemieux: Feb. 4, 1997. A third-period empty net goal at Mellon Arena against the Vancouver Canucks as part of a 6-4 Penguins win. Francis and Jagr had the assists.

Listen: Seth Rorabaugh and Tim Benz talk about the Penguins’ win in Boston, Brad Marchand’s hearing for going after Pens goalie Tristan Jarry and Sidney Crosby’s attempt to get goal No. 500