Sidney Crosby is heading into his 22nd NHL season, and the most striking part is how little the routine has changed.
On a random early fall Tuesday in Pittsburgh, with the Penguins’ opener in Philadelphia less than 36 hours away, Crosby was still out there doing the same demanding work that has defined his career. He spent an hour on the ice at practice with the kind of urgency that has never really faded, even as he closes in on his 40th birthday.
He was sharp around the net, tipping a point shot past rookie goalie Sergei Murashov. He was frustrated on one sequence when a pass didn’t click, then immediately raced back on the backcheck and slammed his stick into the end boards. Later, during a power-play drill, he kept drifting from the half wall to the crease and back again, reading the ice the way he always has.
When practice ended, younger Penguins headed for the room. Crosby stayed out there.
So did Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. The three veterans kept going for another 20-plus minutes, still chasing the small details that have always mattered to them.
Penguins coach Dan Muse said he heard about that kind of work ethic before taking over in the summer of 2025, but seeing it firsthand made an impression.
“Sometimes I (was) surprised last year,” Muse said. “Now I guess I’m not as surprised at how long they’re out there for. … I think for everybody who’s seeing it too, like I said, it’s not necessarily the normal.”
Crosby has spent his whole career carrying expectations that started when he arrived in the NHL as a teenage prodigy in 2005 and never really let up. He has become the face of the Penguins, an Olympic gold medalist, a three-time Stanley Cup champion and the NHL’s seventh all-time leading scorer, with a move into the top five coming soon. Through it all, he has kept the same simple answer for why he still pushes this hard.
“I just love the game,” Crosby said.
That love shows up in everything around the rink, not just game nights. He arrived at the team facility weeks before training camp.
He still wants to compete internationally. After Pittsburgh’s surprising season ended with a first-round loss to Philadelphia, he did not spend the summer away from the game.
Instead, he served as an alternate captain for 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini and Team Canada at the 2026 World Championships, after his bid for a second Olympic gold was cut short by an injury at the 2026 Cortina Winter Games.
Crosby said the grind itself still fuels him.
“I think, you know, there’s the journey or the preparation that goes into it,” he said.
He also said the nightly goal never changes.
“Ultimately, you just, every night you step on the ice, you’re trying to win a hockey game,” he said. “That’s something that’s still there. I think it provides a lot of fire to everything for me.”
That fire is still there even as other stars around him, including Malkin and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, appear to have fewer games left in front of them. Crosby says he wants to keep going, but he also knows the decision won’t come from a calendar.
For the first time in his career, he is entering a season in the final year of his contract. Crosby has not rushed into anything, saying he has learned to pay attention to how his body feels.
He told reporters earlier this month, when he was delivering season tickets to select fans, “I don’t think you ever know until you get to that point,” he said. “But I’m guessing it’s your level, it’s how your body feels, it’s a combination of all those things.
Overall, I feel pretty good.”
Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas and Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson have been talking, but Dubas said Monday there is no “real pressure to have it done by a certain date or anything.”
The numbers still keep climbing. Crosby opens the season with 1,761 career points and needs 38 more to pass Ron Francis for fifth on the all-time list.
He could, in theory, chase 2,000 points if he sticks around long enough. But that kind of milestone has never been the point.
“I didn’t even know how close I was until you just gave me that stat,” he said. “So no, when you talk about motivating factors to play, I wouldn’t say that’s one of them.”
What still drives him is the same thing that has always driven him: trying to push the Penguins back toward the standard they set in 2016 and 2017, when they won back-to-back championships. Pittsburgh has not gotten past the first round since 2018, though last season’s run to second place in the Metropolitan Division gave the group some momentum. Dubas has said the goal is to make up ground on Carolina, the reigning Cup champion, but Crosby is looking no further than the next game, the next practice, the next shift.
For him, it always comes back to the same rhythm: practices, morning skates, flights, meals, games. Eighty-four times over the next six months, and maybe more after that, he gets the chance to do what he has always done - step over the boards and lean into the fire once again.
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