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May 04, 2009

Crosby versus Ovechkin: The Battle to be Best

The two greatest stars in the NHL are facing off head-to-head from two of the biggest hockey cities in the United States. The NHL and NBC each teared up a little bit, and hockey fans everywhere checked off their calendars. Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, and of course the rest of the Capitals and Penguins, were finally facing off in a playoff series.

Since coming into the league in the same year thanks to the lockout cancelling what would have been Ovechkin’s first season, the two have been in direct competition for the title as league best, for bigger and better trophies, and for the hearts and minds of the fans. Ovechkin won the first battle, taking home the Calder in 2006, and each have won a Hart, Crosby in 2007, Ovechkin in 2008. Ovechkin has also outscored Crosby in three of the four seasons since they both broke into the league, while scoring goals with reckless abandon. But statistics aside, the most interesting aspect of the battle between the two youngsters is the battle for the fans.

All of hockey’s eyeballs had been on Sidney Crosby for years. Here was a clean-cut boy from Canada (Nova Scotia, no less), who spoke perfect Wayne Gretzky English and dominated his opponents in junior hockey. He was being toted as the new face of the NHL, which was suffering from an image and a game problem before and especially during the lockout of 2005. The rights to draft his services were put to a lottery for all teams, and the NHL brass breathed a sigh of relief when that first ball they pulled didn’t have an ugly green and purple coyote thing on it. Pittsburgh it was, and how suiting to have Super Mario there to tutor him in his waning days. They could revitalize a failing franchise in a strong hockey market, and breathe new life into the franchise and the entire NHL. That’s a lot of pressure on a seventeen-year-old.

So Crosby was the cool kid and everyone wanted to be his friend, until this foreign exchange student showed up and became the life of the party. Two years older and able to funnel three beers at once with complete disregard for his body, Ovechkin became the toast of the league. He could score goals; he could throw hits; and he can celebrate with the best of them. Unbridled enthusiasm from a kid who didn’t know any better and was doing what he did best, which also happened to be what he loved to do. And to the delight of everybody (but perhaps Sid), he kept doing it.

So two parts maturity, three parts temperament, add in some hockey breeding and a dash of marketing, and Crosby becomes a hard-luck whiner who nobody wants to be around, while Ovechkin’s still scoring goals with reckless abandon. Crosby grew up being compared to Wayne Gretzky the hockey player, as he grew up watching Wayne Gretzky the diplomat. A polite Canadian, Crosby said all the right things about hard-work and fair-play and we’ll-get-‘em’next-time, while Ovechkin’s still scoring goals with reckless abandon. Even the NHL marketing machine, with a series of very cute and funny ads, played Crosby the straight man to Ovechkin’s prankster. In the brilliant hotel add featuring a number of NHL stars goofing around like kids in a hotel during a hockey tournament (what’d they call it when they threw flour in your face while you slept?), Ovechkin orders large amounts of room service, only to have it sent to Crosby’s room. Crosby, in his very best Seinfeld impression, bemoans being the butt of Ovechkin’s joke. Ovechkin is just a lot of fun. Perhaps Sid did a bit of whining in his first year or two, but it must be tough when men twice your age with a tenth of your talent are shoving the butt ends of their sticks into your ribs behind the refs’ backs, while Ovechkin’s still scoring goals with reckless abandon.

Not to belittle Alexander Ovechkin. He has done great things for the Washington Capitals and the game of hockey. He has maintained his ‘cool foreign exchange student’ demeanour as well as his zest for life and scoring goals. He has improved the play of his teammates, and is always the first one in on the celebration when they score. He has done interviews and commercials and been a personality, all in a culture and a language he doesn’t understand. He has given the NHL an anti-Sidney to play against Crosby’s hero. And perhaps most importantly he has guided his Capitals into the second round of the playoffs, all while scoring goals with reckless abandon.

However I would still take Sidney Crosby on my team, and I still think Pittsburgh will take the series. (I had said Pens in five, but mostly because I was mad at Washington for coming back against New York…). Crosby has the style of play that will succeed in the NHL playoffs, and he has shown it by leading his team to the finals last season. All while being two years younger, and with the continued weight of the league’s and the fans’ expectations. Go Sid Go.

Russ MacDonald