The Debate that Really Doesn't have an Answer

Beginning this Saturday night, the Penguins of Pittsburgh will travel to the nations' capitol to take on the Washington Capitals. Most casual fans won't see this match-up of two bitter rivals that battled just about every year in the early 90s, they'll see it as Crosby v. Ovechkin, and who can blame them? That will be all the national media will spew out over the next few days. Normally, this debate would make me want to slam my head in a car door, but I'll delve into this tonight.


v.



Both are two of the best players in the world, there is no debating that. If you think either Ovechkin or Crosby sucks, you're a joke, and there is also no debating that. Both can take over a game when they need to and both have carried their team back to respectability and also back into they playoffs. So let's try to compare the two.

Scoring
The only year that Sidney Crosby has failed to score more than 100 points was 07-08, but he still managed 72 points in just 53 games due to a high ankle sprain. Had he played the full season, at his 1.35 points per game rate, he would have finished with 110 points that season. Over his career, he is averaging 1.36 points per game. He is not a goal scorer though. Never has he eclipsed the 40 goal mark in his 4 years of service. He came close in his first two years with 39 and 36, respectively. I never expect him to win goals race in the league, and that is probably not a goal of his either. Where his production comes is in the form of the assist. He averages about .91 assists per game (and would be at a solid 1 per game. And I only expect this to go up as Evgeni Malkin and Crosby's linemates improve.

Ovechkin is going to win the previously mentioned Richard trophy more often than he will lose it. He is a goal scoring machine, and as he said, "Russian machines do not break." A lot of people, including myself, thought he had a real chance to get past 70 goals this year and maybe even challenge 80. But a rough 2 goals in the first 11 games of his season quelled that thought a bit. He still managed to bury 56 goals this year. If you take out the first 11 games and two goals, and project what he did the rest of the season, you would get just about 64 goals, roughly the same as the year before (and also winning the art ross, but we'll just keep quiet about that)

ADVANTAGE - PUSH
You need goals to win the game, but you need assists to score the goals.




Defense
This one is a little dicey to weigh the options on. Crosby is more of a two way player than AO, that's just honesty. I've seen enough Caps games to see that rarely will AO dig in the corners like Crosby, and I've only seen him give a hard backcheck once (which he happened to save a goal on, but if he hadn't turned it over in the first place, there would be no need to hustle as hard as he did). I've seen AO give up on enough plays and abandon his position just to throw out the big hit, which is flashy but could cost his team. Crosby just does what he does, and gets dirty when he has to, which is good enough for me.

ADVANTAGE - CROSBY
Crosby just does what he does, and gets dirty when he has to, which is good enough for me.




Physicality
No need to even compare the two here. Ovechkin plays a much much more physical game than Crosby. He had a total of 243 hits in 2008-09 and for a player of his caliber and finesse...that's just plain awesome. He gets people riled up on the ice and gets them off their game he gets under people's skin and then scores on them and he can also throw that big hit that can get his team going again. Crosby is more concerned with completing the play than completing the hit, which is fine, but it won't win him this category.

ADVANTAGE - OVECHKIN




You can argue the leadership quality and that Crosby has the C and Ovie doesn't, but who cares? Both get their team going in their own ways. AO has the better nickname, Alexander the Great vs. Sid the Kid. Alexander the Great conquered shit. Sid the Kid? Just an awful name. There really is no way to say who is the better player here. Where one lacks, the other excels. So how to settle this debate....





That right there is Richard Kiel, better known as the monster dude in Happy Gilmore that broke Shooter Mcgavin's 9-iron and wearing this incredible shirt





That's Andy Samberg of SNL and The Lonely Island fame. While he may entertain and make me laugh at times, he never wore that shirt.

WINNER - OVECHKIN with an assist from Richard Kiel
Kiel comes in and takes out Sid and Samberg with a steel chair while Ovechkin distracts the ref. AO gets the three count and the narrow escape.