The Pittsburgh Penguins enter Saturday night’s game at the Ottawa Senators having clicked off a couple of milestones following an impressive 60 minutes of hockey.
That is largely in part to superstar captain Sidney Crosby, who was key in Thursday night’s 9-2 shellacking of the Montreal Canadiens.
The captain set up three tallies and passed Hall of Famer Gordie Howe for fifth place in all-time assists by a player with one team. Crosby’s 1,026 total leaves him just seven behind fourth-place Mario Lemieux.
Crosby’s three-assist performance Thursday was the 65th of his career. The 37-year-old has eight goals and 22 assists this season. He also has been extremely tough on the Senators, averaging 1.16 points per game.
In 49 career matches, the Nova Scotia superstar has 57 points (19 goals, 38 assists) against Ottawa. He has points in eight of the past 10 meetings (three goals, 11 assists).
His 57 career points tie him with Jaromir Jagr for the most by a Pittsburgh player vs. the Senators.
Crosby assisted on two of the three goals by Bryan Rust, who notched his sixth career hat trick as part of a four-point night.
“Definitely one I’m going to remember,” Rust said after Pittsburgh scored six times in the third period. “Some nights it feels good, and sometimes the puck just finds you, and that’s how it goes. … We were on our toes and scored a lot of goals.”
Rust has 12 goals and eight assists in 24 games this season. Defenseman Kris Letang has eight points (four goals, four assists) in the past six outings.
Meanwhile, the Penguins have 36 goals in the last eight games (6-2-0), yet Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have found the net just once between them.
When the two Eastern Conference sides meet in Canada’s capital on Saturday, there is a strong chance fans will get to see bonus hockey: The past three tilts between the teams have ventured to overtime, with Ottawa winning all three.
The Senators also have won the past four times they played Pittsburgh and five of six dating to the 2022-23 campaign.
Like the Penguins, the Senators have a big scorer at right wing who collected three goals and an assist this week in Drake Batherson.
He posted his second career hat trick in Ottawa’s 5-1 home win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. He became the first Ottawa player to record a natural hat trick since captain Brady Tkachuk accomplished the feat on Dec. 11, 2021.
Batherson has 12 goals and 20 assists in 29 games this season.
Fans threw hats, and Ottawa coach Travis Green praised the gesture.
“Being a fan of the game, I love it,” he said. “Being a coach, you’re trying to keep your team moving in the right direction and keep momentum going, but I think it’s awesome.”
Hot on home ice, center Tim Stutzle has seven goals and 18 assists in 16 games in Ottawa this season.
In Friday’s only NHL game, Shane Pinto tallied twice and Linus Ullmark stopped 32 shots for his second shutout of the season and the 10th of his career in Ottawa’s 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
