Team of the century - 3-19-09

We're not sure if this has been brought up already by FSN Pittsburgh or any other outlet, but Evgeni Malkin's five-point night against the Thrashers Tuesday created a little bit of history. He reached the 100-point plateau for the second time in his career and it was the 29th different time a player for the franchise hit that mark. That nudged the Penguins ahead of the Oilers for the most individual 100-point campaigns by any one franchise:

(WHA totals are not included in this list.)

This list really puts things in perspective in how lucky Penguins fans have been. Aside from all those bankrupcies and the 1983-84 season of course. The Stars have been around just as long as the Penguins and they have had four different 100-point seasons by players. That's it. Four.

The Maple Leafs have been around since 1917. They have 50 years on the Penguins. And they only have four.

But the age of a franchise doesn't really matter however when discussing 100-point seasons. The first time any players reached the century plateau was the 1968-69 season when Phil Esposito, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull all feasted on expansion teams and hit the mark. Even so, the vaunted Canadiens, who in the mid to late 1970s were as dominant as any franchise in any sport could have been, have only produced 10 100-point seasons. The last one was by Mats Naslund in 1985-86, a year before Sidney Crosby was born.

But despite so many ups and downs on and off the ice, the Penguins have managed to hit this mark with relative consistency since the 1970s, even before Mario Lemieux was in the picture.

With Sidney Crosby at 92 points this season, the Penguins are about to increase their lead in this statistic as well.

Update: Kudos to PG Webmaster Jody Farr for helping us straighten out the coding on the table.

(Photo: Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)