Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby?

[bobholly39]

Has he? If we break it down by season

Better season (awards, goal/pt finishes, etc)--better player (played at a higher level while healthy)

05/06: OV--OV
06/07: Crosby--Crosby
07/08: OV--OV
08/09: OV--OV
09/10: OV--OV
10/11: OV--Crosby
11/12: OV--Crosby
12/13: Crosby--Crosby
13/14: Crosby--Crosby
14/15: OV--OV
15/16: Crosby--Crosby
16/17: Crosby--Crosby
17/18: OV--OV
18/19: Crosby--Crosby
19/20: OV--OV
20/21: Crosby--Crosby
21/22: OV--OV
22/23: OV--OV

Better season: 11-7 OV
Better player: 9-9

3 distinct "phases" of their careers. In their first 5 seasons, OV was better in 4/5 and I think the majority of Crosby fans will admit that. But then Crosby was better for the next 6/7 and most OV fans accept that. It's been a back and forth for the last 5 seasons though but I think most will agree that OV was better last season and so far this season.

A lot of these are debatable.

Also - in the years where Ovechkin has been better, usually its only by a little bit. In contrast, in the years where Crosby has been better, its often been a much bigger gap. Thatsl to me is the biggest differentiator

 

[SwedishFire]

Crosby make Cups, Ovie promotes hockey better by just being Ovie.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Ovi for now, peak, career and legacy.

 

[Xspyrit]

lol it’s Bedard

 

[Valinor]

Crosby, not all that close.

 

[Caps8112]

while i think its really close and also agree with people saying they play completely different positions ones greatness relies on the teams he was on while the others greatness was established by the player. I believe crosby is great but if you look thru this thread you will see Cups,Medals and games he didnt play being used to favor him. Ive said before Ovi has never had a player like Malkin and never will. Pittsburgh wins none of those cups without Malkin. When Ovi finally got a player on his team (Kuzy) to have similar production to himself, crosby or malkin, shocker they won the cup. 90% of the capitals playoff success in the ovi era was literally how far could he carry them with suspect defensemen and journeymen goaltending at best. Crosby scored the gold winning goal while playing for a team that had no business losing to anyone at all in that tournament. Winning a gold playing for team Canada is like a participation trophy. Now if Ovi won a gold playing for a defensivly inept russian team whose best goalie was Bobrovsky that would be saying something. Ovis greatness is built on the records and trophy case he has amassed. The cup was something a lot of people on here needed to validate him. Crosby is amazing but even if he is the better player its not by some giant gap as some would like to believe in this thread. They have both been amazing from day 1.

 

[Gurglesons]

Caps fan choosing Crosby.

Ovechkin for peak and Crosby for career.

The obvious answer.

 

[DearDiary]

while i think its really close and also agree with people saying they play completely different positions ones greatness relies on the teams he was on while the others greatness was established by the player. I believe crosby is great but if you look thru this thread you will see Cups,Medals and games he didnt play being used to favor him. Ive said before Ovi has never had a player like Malkin and never will. Pittsburgh wins none of those cups without Malkin. When Ovi finally got a player on his team (Kuzy) to have similar production to himself, crosby or malkin, shocker they won the cup. 90% of the capitals playoff success in the ovi era was literally how far could he carry them with suspect defensemen and journeymen goaltending at best. Crosby scored the gold winning goal while playing for a team that had no business losing to anyone at all in that tournament. Winning a gold playing for team Canada is like a participation trophy. Now if Ovi won a gold playing for a defensivly inept russian team whose best goalie was Bobrovsky that would be saying something. Ovis greatness is built on the records and trophy case he has amassed. The cup was something a lot of people on here needed to validate him. Crosby is amazing but even if he is the better player its not by some giant gap as some would like to believe in this thread. They have both been amazing from day 1.

That's a strange argument considering how much better the Caps rosters have been than the Pens. Caps never got far in the playoffs because they stacked their lines instead of spreading them out. Backstrom and Ovechkin should never have played on the same line, Kuznetsov should have been 3C when they got him, e.g.

Ellers/Ovechkin
Backstrom/Oshie
Kuznetsov/Burakovsky

The Caps have made it past the 2nd round once since 1998, they went right back into form after their cup win. That's solely on the Capitals organization and their best players.

 

[Caps8112]

That's a strange argument considering how much better the Caps rosters have been than the Pens. Caps never got far in the playoffs because they stacked their lines instead of spreading them out. Backstrom and Ovechkin should never have played on the same line, Kuznetsov should have been 3C when they got him, e.g.

Ellers/Ovechkin
Backstrom/Oshie
Kuznetsov/Burakovsky

The Caps have made it past the 2nd round once since 1998, they went right back into form after their cup win. That's solely on the Capitals organization and their best players.

So moving career high 39 pt eller to the top line for more production, sending Backstrom to the 2nd line (which they tried a bunch of times by the way) and taking 80ish pt defensively irresponsible kuzy and putting him at 3c is the answer.

If you go back and look the caps rosters were not better then the pens. Holtby at his best was the only real goalie they had in the ovi era and that was for like 3 seasons.

 

[DearDiary]

So moving career high 39 pt eller to the top line for more production, sending Backstrom to the 2nd line (which they tried a bunch of times by the way) and taking 80ish pt defensively irresponsible kuzy and putting him at 3c is the answer.

If you go back and look the caps rosters were not better then the pens. Holtby at his best was the only real goalie they had in the ovi era and that was for like 3 seasons.

Was Ovechkin not capable of carrying a 3rd line player against other teams best players?
Play Backstrom against the other teams 2nd lines
Not sure why you think Kuznetsov being poor defensively matters against the others teams bottom 6

 

[orby]

Voted Crosby, but both are undeniable legends who we are lucky to have had a chance to watch.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Was Ovechkin not capable of carrying a 3rd line player against other teams best players?
Play Backstrom against the other teams 2nd lines
Not sure why you think Kuznetsov being poor defensively matters against the others teams bottom 6

In his peak years yes he could, but not in recent years. Backstrom can't carry a line, it has been tried and never went well (in another thread someone posted the stats which show how terrible Backstrom is away from OV). Kuznetsov is too inconsistent to be depended on. I'm not one of those people who says "Crosby only won because of Malkin, OV has no help" but there's no denying that Malkin is a different stratosphere of player compared to anyone OV has played with. If OV had another hart winner drawing the oppositions attention things would be very different.

Also, the caps especially during OV's peak, had absolute garbage D and goaltending. Those teams were going nowhere, regardless of who OV can/could carry.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Both top 10 players of all time, edge to Crosby

 

[Nathaniel]

Lol crosby goes through a lil slump and the ov fans come out flying. Crosby then and Crosby now per usual

Crosby

However Ovechkin's been better than Crosby this & last season so I wouldn't argue with people choosing Ovy.

Better this season as in the last week while crosby has been in a lil rut lol.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

OV by an inch.

 

[Signupnow]

Ovie. Most important and hardest thing to do in this game (accordingly to your new prophet mcjesus) is to score goals. A goal scorer cannot get secondary assists on their goals so by nature they'll have less points as it's many many times easier to rack up secondaries. Even me could get a secondary in NHL by passing the puck toEK behind the net who rushes it up the ice and pass it to someone who scores, I could never score a goal.

That aside. Crosby has really nothing substantial when we look in the history books. Good at many things master of nothing while Ovie will hold the greatest record in history.

 

[GettingYourMoms]

Ups accidentaly voted for Owechkyn. Not a chance for Putin's boyfriend.

 

[Walrus26]

Crosby has been a great player. Ovechkin is just more.......exciting.

Put puck in net 800 times against bigger, better goalies wearing enough gear to simply hide a lot more of it than was ever the case in earlier eras, smash people all over the ice (not quite so much of that now he's older), big personality and total hockey fanboy. Now that's a hockey player.