NHL

Penguins: Inside The Crosby, Malkin, & Letang Connection

Penguins: Inside The Crosby, Malkin, & Letang Connection

When Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang scored a first-period power-play goal on Saturday night, set up by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, it marked the 60th time that the longest-tenured teammates in NHL history connected on a goal.

The trio began playing together during the 2006-07 season and won three Stanley Cup championships, scoring 1,257 goals and 3,643 points.

When digging through the scoring logs, here's a breakdown of those sixty goals, indicated by the player's career goal number.

Evgeni Malkin (28)

First Malkin-Crosby-Letang goal: Malkin's 50th (Jan. 3, 2008)

First Malkin-Letang-Crosby goal: Malkin's 164th (Nov. 21, 2011)

Sidney Crosby (20)

  • 13 goals from Malkin (primary) and Letang (secondary)

  • Seven goals from Letang (primary) and Malkin (secondary)

First Crosby-Malkin-Letang goal: Crosby's 100th (Oct. 18, 2008)

First Crosby-Letang-Malkin goal: Crosby's 212nd (Dec. 23, 2010)

Kris Letang (12)

  • Five goals from Malkin (primary) and Crosby (secondary)

  • Seven goals from Crosby (primary) and Malkin (secondary)

First Letang-Malkin-Crosby goal: Letang's 89th (Dec. 7, 2017)

First Letang-Crosby-Malkin goal: Letang's 3rd (Dec. 3, 2007)

Feb 20, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang (58) and center Evgeni Malkin (71) present center Sidney Crosby (87) with a commemorative stick and plaque in honor of his 500th career NHL goal before the game against the Carolina Hurricanes at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Furthermore, here's a statistical look at the players' impact on each other's careers.

  • Crosby has an assist on 139 of Malkin's career goals (27.9%)

  • Crosby with a helper on 62 of Letang's career goals (37.1%)

  • Malkin has an assist on 122 of Crosby's career goals (20.6%)

  • Malkin with a helper on 47 of Letang's career goals (28.1%)

  • Letang has an assist on 87 of Malkin's career goals (17.4%)

  • Letang with a helper on 121 of Crosby's career goals (20.4%)

Although Crosby is still chasing Mario Lemieux for the franchise's all-time scoring record of 1,723 points, Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr (1,079) were at the top before this trio joined the organization. Crosby, Malkin, and Letang have outscored those two hockey legends by 841 points today.

Stathead by Hockey Reference was used to calculate and verify these dates and totals.

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