The Pittsburgh Penguins secured another win and Sidney Crosby continued to cement his legacy.

PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby has been on a mission lately, doing everything he can to get the Pittsburgh Penguins into playoff contention. With 10 games remaining, the odds may be long, but he has by far been the Penguins' best player in recent matches.

With nine points in his last three outings, Crosby has not only helped the Penguins back into the win column a couple of times, but he’s also been climbing the ladder of NHL history.

Crosby notched two assists in the Penguins win over the Columbus Blue Jackets helping him tie and surpass Ray Bourque for sole possession of 11^th on the all-time points list. Now sitting with 1,580 career points, Crosby is that much closer to reaching the NHL’s top-10 all-time point scorers.

Those 1,580 points are split between 585 goals and 995 assists in 1,261 career games played.

These numbers almost didn't happen for Crosby, either, as he tailed off a bit between late February and early March. In a nine-game stretch, he hadn’t scored any goals and had only four assists. In the eight games since, Crosby has looked like his dominant self, with three goals and 11 assists for 14 points.

The Penguins' chances of making the playoffs seem to shrink every day, but Crosby isn’t letting his foot off the gas.

He needs five more assists to become just the 14^th player to ever hit 1,000 helpers and is 10 total points behind Phil Esposito for 10^th most all-time. Regardless of playoff positioning, Crosby will continue cementing his legacy as one of the greatest hockey players ever.

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