Penguins legendary center, Sidney Crosby, became the 21st player in NHL history to score his 600th career goal when he achieved the feat in a game vs. the Utah Hockey Club last Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Crosby’s teammates skated onto the ice and mobbed their captain. The folks at PPG Paints Arena stood and cheered for an extended period. It was certainly a magical moment for one of the all-time great NHL players.

Unfortunately, the Penguins were trailing, 2-1, and would lose by a score of 6-1. The loss dropped Pittsburgh’s record to 7-12-4, a mark good (or bad) enough for last place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins have a total of 18 points, which is the second-lowest number in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and third-lowest in the entire league.

As I’ve touched upon before in this space, the Penguins’ dynastic era that saw them advance to four Stanley Cup Finals and win three championships between 2008 and 2017 is over. It’s been over for quite a while, actually. Pittsburgh hasn’t won a postseason series since 2018. The organization has missed the playoffs the past two years, and a third-straight playoff-less season looks fairly certain less than two months into the 2024/2025 campaign.

Why is this happening? Time, that’s why. Time catches up to every organization and athlete, even an all-time great hockey player like Sidney Crosby. To reiterate earlier articles, the Penguins have an old core that includes Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Offensive defenseman Erik Karlsson has been a major disappointment since being acquired in a trade prior to the 2023/2024 campaign. Not only are the Penguins stars old, but they’re expensive and have no-movement clauses in their contracts. Not only are the Penguins stars old, expensive and hard to move, but there isn’t another Crosby, Malkin, Letang or even Karlsson waiting in the wings to take the franchise into a brighter future.

The Penguins’ future, at least their immediate future, looks pretty bleak right now.

Who’s to blame? The new owners? Head coach Mike Sullivan? Team president and general manager Kyle Dubas? The players, themselves? Crosby for having a bit too much power within the organization and reportedly insisting that the core stay together because, gosh darn it, that core can still win, Father Time, be damned?

You can place blame wherever you like, but the fact of the matter is, this kind of thing happens to every sports dynasty at some point. When it comes to sports dynasties, I dare you to find one that defied the odds and managed to ward off an extended down period after the parades were over.

I don’t think you can name one.

Crosby has been around for a long time, since the 2005/2006 season. When he made his NHL debut, the Arizona Coyotes were still called the Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes were the old Winnipeg Jets franchise that relocated to Phoenix in 1996. The team Crosby just scored his 600th goal against, the Utah Hockey Club, is a newly-christened expansion team that acquired the assets of the Coyotes–players, coaching staff, draft picks, etc.–who are officially out of business after suspending hockey operations following the 2023/2024 season. When Crosby was a rookie, the Atlanta Thrashers were an expansion team that began play in 1999. The Thrashers are now the new Winnipeg Jets after relocating to Canada before the 2011/2012 season.

When Crosby won his first Stanley Cup in 2009, the Thrashers didn’t even qualify for the playoffs. Today, the Jets have the best record in the NHL.

Again, time marches on.

Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest centerfielders to ever play the game of baseball, and his Yankees enjoyed a decades-long run that saw them capture 29 American League pennants and 20 World Series titles between 1921 and 1964. However, by the time Mantle swatted his 500th home run in 1967, he was 35 and way past his prime. So were the Yankees, who finished with a losing record the previous two seasons and were on their way to doing the same thing in 1967. New York wouldn’t appear in another World Series until 1976–eight years after Mantle retired.

It’s hard to say when Crosby, who turned 37 in August, will retire. He just signed a contract extension prior to the regular season and is still playing at a fairly high level. Unlike Mantle, who was plagued by injuries during his career–not to mention a love of alcohol and women–Crosby is the consummate professional who eats, sleeps and drinks the sport of hockey. His physical fall from grace will likely be more gradual than dramatic.

Still, it’s hard to see Crosby recapturing the championship magic with the Penguins. Will his competitive spirit eventually lead to him asking for a trade to a contender?

I can certainly see that happening.

Sidney Crosby will one day be celebrated by the fans and the organization when his Penguins career is over. However, his time celebrating anything as a current Pittsburgh Penguin likely ended with his 600th goal at PPG Paints Arena last Saturday.

That’s okay because Father Time is and always will be undefeated.