Age isn’t anything but a number for Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.
The 38-year-old is off to a strong start in his 21st NHL season, with 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) through the Penguins’ first 15 games. He entered Friday’s schedule tied for the league lead in goals and 10th in points, just two shy of the top spot.
He’ll look to keep that success rolling when he and the Penguins visit the New Jersey Devils on Saturday in Newark.
Crosby, who has 96 points (42 goals, 54 assists) in 89 career games against New Jersey, is a third of the way to matching his goal total from last season, when he tallied 33 in 80 games. He’s on pace for a career-high 60 goals while his point pace would match the third highest of his career, 104, which he last reached in 2013-14.
At the other end of the age spectrum is rookie Ben Kindel. Just over four months ago, Pittsburgh selected the 18-year-old with the No. 11 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. These days, he finds himself completing the top line with Crosby and Bryan Rust and earning a spot on the top power-play unit.
“He’s an extremely smart kid, knows where to be on the ice, knows which plays to make,” Rust said. “And when you combine that intelligence with his skill level, obviously, really good things are going to happen.”
With injuries suddenly taking a toll on the Penguins’ lineup, Kindel was promoted to the prime role. He played his first game with Crosby and Rust on Thursday, a 5-3 win against the Washington Capitals in which he tabbed his first two career assists to go with the five goals he’s already scored.
“There’s a lot of communication,” Kindel said. “It’s easy to play with those guys and just try and beat out for them. It was our first game together, but I think we started to build a little bit of chemistry, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Pittsburgh will be looking for consecutive wins for the first time since a four-game winning streak from Oct. 16-23. The team is 3-2-2 after a 6-2-0 start to the season.
The Devils will also be eyeing a second straight win after a 4-3 overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. New Jersey has hit a bit of a bump since winning eight in a row from Oct. 11-26. Though the Devils have won two of their past three games, they’ve dropped three of five since their run of success.
They could be without top defenseman Dougie Hamilton against the Penguins. Hamilton played just over 10 minutes against Montreal before exiting the game in the second period because of an injury and he didn’t practice on Friday.
It’s the second notable hit to the Devils’ blue line, with Brett Pesce sidelined for at least a month with an upper-body injury sustained on Oct. 26.
“This is a big opportunity, right?” defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “You’re going to get more minutes, more opportunity. Whether that’s special teams, five-on-five. If you’re a competitor, you want these minutes, you want to be counted on, relied upon, that’s the best part about our sport, the competitive side of it.”
