Penguins Sidney Crosby's Ready for Another Season

Sidney Crosby is ready for another season. And, honestly, at this point in his career, that's still kind of fun to write. Crosby scored a goal Saturday as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 in their preseason finale. He opened the scoring in the first period with a slap shot from the left circle, and just like that, one of the oldest guys in the league was doing what he has been doing for a very, very long time — putting the puck in the net.

Nobody should get too excited about a preseason goal. It's September. The games don't count yet. But Crosby isn't really playing for a job anymore. He's getting ready for another NHL season. And that is the interesting part.

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Crosby Is Still Crosby.

The guy is 39 years old. Yet last season he put up 29 goals and 74 points in 68 games, and that gave him a point-per-game season for the 21st consecutive season, an NHL record. That's not somebody hanging around because he has a famous name. That's still legitimate NHL production. There was a time when Crosby was the young superstar everybody was watching. Then he became the veteran superstar. Now he's becoming something else entirely: the old guy who somehow keeps playing like the old guy never arrived.

And milestones are still waiting for him. Crosby is chasing the all-time scoring leaders, and every productive season moves him another step up that list. He also passed Mario Lemieux last season to become the Penguins' all-time leading scorer, which is one of those accomplishments that is almost hard to get your head around.

Think about that for a second. Sidney Crosby passed Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh. The kid who arrived in Pittsburgh as the answer to the franchise's future eventually became the guy whose name sits above Lemieux's in the Penguins' record book. And he's still playing. And doing it very well indeed.

The Penguins Still Need Crosby to Be Crosby.

That's probably the other part of this story. Crosby isn't simply collecting milestones while the Penguins rebuild around him. He's still a major part of what Pittsburgh is trying to do. The Penguins finished their preseason 2-2-0, and the regular season is now just around the corner.

So there will be Crosby again. There will be Malkin again. There will be Letang again. The NHL keeps getting younger, faster and more demanding. And somehow Sidney Crosby is still producing. And that’s the real story in Pittsburgh.

The preseason goal doesn't prove Crosby will have another huge season. But it does provide one more little reminder that when the puck drops for real, No. 87 is still going to be a problem for somebody. At 39, that's pretty remarkable.

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