On the Fly: With Crosby approaching milestone, 5 points we'll never forget

With Sidney Crosby on the verge of his 1,000th career regular-season point, "On the Fly," theScore's NHL roundtable series, convenes for a special session.

Three more points.

That's all Sidney Crosby needs to hit the 1,000 mark for his career, and it's happening this week. Perhaps as soon as Tuesday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins' next three games are against the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, and Arizona Coyotes, so it's all but a formality.

As he approaches the milestone, we're looking back. Here are five regular-season points by Crosby we won't ever forget.

50

Ian McLaren: In the final game of the 2009-10 regular season, Crosby scored twice against Dwayne Roloson and the New York Islanders.

The goals marked his 50th and 51st of the season - the first and only time he's reached the half-century mark. In fact, Crosby's next-highest single-season goal total is 39, set as a rookie back in 2005-06.

Crosby's 298 shots on goal that season also set a new career high that's yet to be eclipsed.

The 51 goals gave him a share of the NHL lead and the Rocket Richard Trophy with Steven Stamkos. Crosby, however, played one fewer game than Stamkos that season, and the extra 21:57 (Crosby's average ice time that season) probably would have afforded him the opportunity to hit at least 52.

Welcome back

Josh Gold-Smith: A pair of hits to the head forced Crosby to miss nearly a full year, but it didn't take him long to make an impact in his first game back.

Concussion symptoms resulting from headshots by Dave Steckel and Victor Hedman in consecutive contests in January 2010 kept him out for the second half of the 2010-11 regular season, all of the 2011 playoffs, and the first 20 games of the 2011-12 campaign.

But when he returned Nov. 21, 2011, it took him less than six minutes to score a spectacular goal against the New York Islanders - one of two he'd tally in the game.

Assist No. 21

Navin Vaswani: It was Dec. 27, 2005 - three months into Crosby's career. And I was off to Pittsburgh, driving from Toronto with a group of friends to the old Igloo, to watch "The Kid" face the Maple Leafs for the first time. He was the next one, after all.

The Civic Arena was some barn. One of those old-school buildings, a relic, the house that Mario Lemieux built - and it belonged to Crosby now. And No. 87, only 18, didn't disappoint.

With Toronto up 2-1 in the third period, and the Penguins on the power play, Crosby made a brilliant cross-crease pass to Michel Ouellet, after trying himself to jam the puck in while sliding out from behind the net on one knee. Yeah. And the pass went to where Ouellet was going to be. Tie game. It was unreal. Check it out:

Unparalleled vision. A sign of things to come. And as Crosby approaches point No. 1,000, I'm left thinking about the first time I saw him play, and assist No. 21. He's added 628 since.

It's hard to believe it's been more than 11 years. Looking back, it was one of those perfect road trips. We were Maple Leafs fans in enemy territory, in town to watch our team, and the home team's star rookie.

Toronto won 3-2 in overtime. Tomas Kaberle scored in extra time, Mikael Tellqvist finished with 33 saves, and Mats Sundin had three points. But, man, what a pass by Sid. We went home with two points, and with the knowledge that we'd watched a special player - Crosby played over 23 minutes that night - who was going to do special things for a long time.

The Slide

Craig Hagerman: Crosby's diving goal from his stomach back in January 2007 was, like many of his career markers, something most hockey fans had never seen before.

The then-sophomore came down on a two-on-one with Mark Recchi, diving on his stomach to get a piece of the Recchi pass and put it by Tampa Bay Lighting goalie Johan Holmqvist.

It was more proof that Crosby - who admitted postgame to diving on purpose - sees the game on a higher level than anyone else, and is the best player in the world.

He has gone on to score a ridiculous number of goals from his knees, but this gem will go down as one of his best.

Still king

Justin Cuthbert: This one might lack similar significance, but, to me, it's pure Sid.

In early February of last season, when he had broken out of his funk and the Penguins were steadily becoming the best team in hockey, Crosby scored a spectacular insurance marker in a game versus the Anaheim Ducks.

He busted out of the zone after creating a turnover at the blue line, and took a lead pass at center. A desperate Cam Fowler applied a hook intended to drop Crosby immediately as he took the pass, but was only successful in slowing him down. Fowler raked him again as Crosby picked up speed over the blue line. This time he'd succeed, but as Crosby dropped to a knee, he launched a snap shot over the shoulder of John Gibson, celebrating while crashing into the boards.

This wondergoal reminded us all Crosby's still king, and that no one protects the puck better.