Captain Sidney Crosby scored his 600th NHL goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night during his team’s 6-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club.

Crosby is the 21st player in NHL history to reach the milestone. He landed at 600 with 10 seconds left on a 5-on-3 power play, giving him seven goals in his past 12 games. Crosby finished a one-timer from the right side of the net, set up on a pass from Erik Karlsson at 3:11 of the second period.

“It’s hard to say. There’s lots of time to think about that, when I’m done playing,” Crosby said on the game broadcast when asked where No. 600 ranked on his list of career accomplishments. “But it’s nice to get it. I’ve been hovering right around it.”

According to ESPN Research, Crosby, the No. 1 pick by the Penguins in the 2005 NHL draft, is the seventh player in league history to score 600 goals for a single franchise and the second to do so with Pittsburgh, after Mario Lemieux finished his career with 690 goals.

“It means a lot,” Crosby said when asked how special the accomplishment is to have done so entirely for Pittsburgh. “Obviously, I’ve been here for a long time. And to be able to do it at home and have another memory, it’s special, and happy to see it go in.”

After the goal was announced, the crowd gave Crosby a standing ovation. The Penguins captain acknowledged the fans and raised his stick in the air. His parents, Troy and Trina, were in attendance for the moment.

After the game, however, his thoughts had already turned to his team and its struggles this season.

“It’s not enjoyable, obviously,” Crosby said after Pittsburgh lost for the 14th time in 18 games. “It was a nice reception and a cool moment. I thought we got some momentum and we were doing some good things, and [Utah] got one shortly after. Even with that, we were still in the game, but it got away from us.”

Dylan Guenther scored twice for Utah, while Nick Bjugstad, Jack McBain, Mikhail Sergachev and Alexander Kerfoot also scored. Karel Vejmelka stopped 27 shots for Utah.

Karlsson surpassed Borje Salming for 15th place on the NHL’s career assists list among defensemen. Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for Pittsburgh.

Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are the only active players with at least 600 NHL goals.

Pittsburgh is the second team in NHL history with multiple 600-goal scorers, joining the Detroit Red Wings‘ Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joe Thornton spent a career setting up his teammates with the perfect passes that helped them score goals.

His jersey retirement ceremony Saturday was an opportunity for his former San Jose teammates to dish out the compliments for his play, leadership and friendship in tributes that repeatedly forced him to wipe away tears on an emotional afternoon.

“The best thing hockey ever gave me — friends for life,” Thornton said during a lengthy speech that included thanks to his former teammates, coaches, executives and family members that helped him throughout his career.

Thornton walked out to the ceremony nattily dressed in a black suit and top hat. He walked through the current members of the Sharks — wearing fake beards in his honor — before coming through the famed Shark head to thunderous applause.

Dozens of his former teammates were on hand and gave tributes on a lengthy video to the player simply known as “Jumbo.”

“It feels good to be back,” Thornton said.

With his pinpoint passing, infectious joy and signature beard, Thornton became the face of the Sharks franchise and was honored with his No. 19 jersey being raised to the rafters.

Thornton joins longtime teammate Patrick Marleau as the only players to have their jerseys retired by the Sharks. It’s fitting that they are side by side as the entered the NHL as the top two picks in the 1997 draft and spent 13 seasons together in San Jose.

“Thank you for making hockey fun, even in the hardest moments,” Marleau said in his tribute. “I’m very thankful and honored that your banner is going to be up next to mine.”

Thornton entered the NHL as the No. 1 overall pick by Boston but had his greatest success in 15 seasons with San Jose following a trade to the Sharks on Nov. 30, 2005.

Thornton ranks first in Sharks history with 804 assists, second with 1,055 points, third with 1,104 games played and fourth with 251 goals. He helped transform the Sharks from a middling franchise to a perennial contender.

“San Jose is his city and the Sharks are his team,” former teammate Joe Pavelski said in his first public appearance at the Shark Tank since retiring last season in Dallas.

Thornton played 1,714 regular-season games over his career, recording 1,109 assists and 430 goals. He was a four-time All-Star, an Olympic gold medalist for Canada in 2010 and won the Hart Trophy as MVP and Art Ross Trophy as scoring leader in 2005-06 after getting traded early that season from Boston to San Jose.

Thornton ranks seventh alltime in assists, 14th in points with 1,539 and sixth in games played.

About the only thing Thornton didn’t accomplish was winning a Stanley Cup, losing in his only trip to the final round in 2016 with the Sharks against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But with his pristine playmaking schools and iconic beard, Thornton became the face of the Sharks franchise after being acquired from Boston on Nov. 30, 2005.

San Jose had only intermittent success before his arrival but made the playoffs all but two seasons during Thornton’s time with the Sharks with the best regular-season record in the NHL in that span.

He helped the team win the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best record in 2008-09, make back-to-back conference finals appearances in 2010 and ’11, the Stanley Cup final in 2016 and another trip to the Western Conference final in 2019.

“Thank you, Sharks fans,” Thornton said to end his speech, “and like I said when I retired, ‘I’ll see you at the rink. Peace and love. Go Sharks.'”

Last season, Connor Bedard was the NHL’s rookie of the year. This season, he is one of the league’s most frustrated stars.

Bedard, 19, has three goals and 12 assists in 20 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, who are tied for the worst points percentage in the NHL (.375). Heading into Saturday’s matchup at the Philadelphia Flyers, Bedard has gone 11 straight games without a goal.

“I could name 100 things [I could do better],” Bedard said Friday. “I don’t know, man. It has been frustrating, for sure. I just don’t feel like I’m really doing anything. So just keep chipping away at it, I guess, and hopefully find my game again.”

While his point production hasn’t fallen off drastically from his 61 points in 68 games last season — good enough to win the Calder Trophy — his goal-scoring pace has been cut in half. Bedard had 22 goals last season.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” he said. “You just feel like you don’t have it or whatever, and you lose a bit of confidence. And it just kind of goes on.”

Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson recently moved Bedard to a line with forwards Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson, as the young center was shifted to the wing. That paid dividends against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, with Bedard assisting on two Dickinson goals.

The three went scoreless in Chicago’s win over the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday, however. They were dominated by center Aleksander Barkov‘s line, getting outshot 8-0 with a 16-2 disadvantage in attempts, but didn’t surrender a goal to Florida’s top line.

“We didn’t bring him here to be a checker,” Richardson said. “But just the way our team has a lack of scoring, we’re hunkering down on the defensive side until we get a little more confidence offensively back.”

Bedard’s take on his new role: If nothing else is working, why not try this?

“I’m not doing much offensively at all, so I’ve got to find a different way to be productive,” he said. “That was obviously different for me, but it’s good to do that. It’s good playing with those two guys. You learn a lot in that end. It’s a lot less work than at center. It’s just about positioning and knowing where to be.”

Bedard hasn’t talked about a lack of confidence much since he was drafted first overall by the Blackhawks in 2023. Richardson said Bedard addressed the issue of confidence because it’s “running through our team rapidly right now. … When you see it once, then that’s kind of the word that’s in your mind to use in an interview.”

Whatever one calls it, Bedard hopes to get back on his game as the 2024-25 NHL season reaches its quarter mark.

“Just keep going in every game,” he said. “Trying to be the best me.”