By TIM BENZ

The Tribune-Review, Greensburg

(TNS) —After scoring three goals against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby was asked if netting a hat trick ever gets old.

“No,” Crosby replied via audio provided by the team. “They don’t come along often. They are definitely fun to get.”

Crosby’s hat trick over the weekend was the 14th of his career. He just had a 12-game point streak halted, and the Penguins’ captain currently has 86 points. If he can collect at least four points over the season’s last four games, that’ll be three straight 90-point seasons since he turned 35 years old.

“He is the heartbeat of this group. He drives the pulse,” head coach Mike Sullivan said Saturday. “When he is playing on top of his game, he gives us a chance to win. He is competing on both sides of the puck.”

For as much as those of us in the sports media are good at patting ourselves on the back when we get something right, we may not have talked enough about how Crosby proved a lot of predictions accurate about how his game would age over the years.

Back when Crosby first broke into the NHL, his speed and explosiveness were eye-catching. But there was always a belief that, even as he may slow down over the years, Crosby’s production would continue at a high level because there is so much else to his approach beyond the raw athleticism he exuded in his late teens and early 20s.

As quick as Crosby has been, his skating hasn’t always been just about flat-out speed. There’s been a strength and sturdiness to it that is just as present (if not more so) in 2025 as there was in 2005.

His hockey instincts and intuition were evident as a rookie and are even more obvious now. His vision and hands have never waned. The ability he illustrated early in his career to work beneath the goal line and into the corners to generate offense has remained.

And then, of course, there is that legendary backhand, which hasn’t been dulled one bit with the passage of time.

“His game is translatable,” Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer said on Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” hockey podcast. “It’s evergreen. It’s eternal.”

The arrows that were in Crosby’s quiver to make him the No. 1 pick in 2005 have manifested into the player that is still All-Star worthy two decades later. Hence, his ability to break Wayne Gretzky’s previous record for most consecutive seasons (19) averaging at least one point per game.

“He’s a tremendously special player and person,” Bryan Rust said after Crosby notched that achievement in Buffalo last month. “Twenty years is a huge accomplishment. He works extremely hard and knows what it takes. There are a lot of people who can be good for one, two or five years. But to do it for that long is incredibly special.”

The thought of Crosby’s

Miller/Getty Images/TNS consistency and maturation of skill comes to mind, at least in part, due to another one of Gretzky’s hallowed records falling. Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin just broke “The Great One’s” alltime goal-scoring record when he potted the 895th of his career Sunday afternoon against the New York Islanders.

Ovechkin will always have his powerful shot from atop the left circle. That’s something that may not erode even if he plays into his 50s. In the year 2045, you could probably push Ovechkin out of bed, strap a pair of skates on his feet, put him on top of the left circle during a power play, and he’ll get you a goal.

Same thing with Crosby’s deflections in front of the net.

It has often been wondered when Crosby will slow down. The best thing about his style, though, is that even if he does, we may not notice.