Crosby's hat trick propels him past 2 legends in the NHL record books.

It turns out it was a pretty great night to be Sidney Crosby on Friday night.

The captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins had a tremendous outing as he had so many times before during his spectacular career in the National Hockey League, but I suspect that this one will be particularly memorable for what it meant in the grand scheme of things.

The Penguins took on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night and although they walked away with a 5 - 2 victory over the Blue Jackets it would be 3 goals from Sidney Crosby himself that would prove to be the difference. Crosby's first goal of the game proved to be a huge one, with the Penguins down 2 - 1 to the Blue Jackets with just seconds left in the opening period Crosby found a deflection in front of the net to tie the game up at 2 goals a piece.

Crosby's second goal of the night would come late in the third period with the Penguins on a 5 on 3 power play, and a ton of credit deserves to go to Bryan Rust on this one. Rust worked from the side of the net into what looked like a good shooting angle, pulling the 3 Blue Jackets still on the ice towards him, and that was enough to leave the Penguins captain wide open and Rust made a perfect pass to set up an easy goal.

The best moment of the night had to be his third goal of the evening however, and this in spite of the fact that it was an empty netter. As Crosby was looking up the ice for a pass, he fired it off so hard that it ended up banking off of the boards and somehow found it's way into the back of the Blue Jackets net. Even the Penguins themselves seemed to doubt that this one could have been intentional.

A hat trick is always going to be a big deal, but this one was extra special. It brought Crosby to 1,356 career points in the National Hockey League and that was enough to move him past two legends of the sport. First Crosby passed Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur who recorded 1,353 points over his incredible career but Crosby also passed Red Wings legend and current President of the Toronto Maple Leafs Brendan Shanahan who had 1,354 points over the course of his own incredible career.

To make things even better though, Crosby did it considerably faster than the two men he passed on the NHL's all time list. Crosby achieved his numbers in just 1,067 games played while Lafleur did it in 1,126 games and Shanahan did it in 1,524 games.  

This now puts Crosby in sole possession of 27th on the league's all time list and the next two men in front of him are Bruins legend Johnny Bucyk at 1,369 points and Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars legend Mike Modano at 1,374 points.