Sidney Crosby

Last Season

Twenty-nine goals and 45 assists in 68 games — 74 points, even in plus-minus, at 19:14 a night with ten power-play goals and 44 penalty minutes. His 1,420th career game and his 1,761st point.

He turned 39 in August.

The Finesse Game

The hands below the goal line remain the best in the sport and always were. He protects the puck with his back to pressure and waits for a defenceman to commit, and thirty-nine years old has not changed the timing of it.

The shot chart is what a great player does with a fading first step: 53 per cent of his unblocked attempts from inside twenty feet, median 18, and thirty goals across all situations. He stopped shooting from the outside years ago.

Forty-five assists in 68 games.

The Physical Game

Five foot eleven, 200, and still the strongest man on the puck in most games he plays. Forty-four penalty minutes — he has never been passive and is not now.

The skating has genuinely slowed. It is the only thing that has.

The Intangibles

Forty-nine point seven per cent of the expected goals, 50th percentile, which is dead average and the least interesting number on this page.

Fourteen points in his last ten. Six hundred and fifty-four goals, 1,107 assists, three Stanley Cups, and twenty-one seasons for one club.

There is no scouting insight to offer. He is the best player of his generation, he is thirty-nine, and he is still producing at better than a point a game. Watch it while it is on.