Better seasons is a convenient way of pretending Crosby wouldn't have had the better season had he been healthy. He was comfortably the best player in the world in several of those years.
I don't get how 2019 can be a tie unless your purposely trying to favor OV. Crosby was the better player and better season easily in 2019.
2013 Crosby had the better season and better player as well. 1 less point in 12 less games. He was going to have 10-15 points above OV and was the face of the NHL from 2011 to 2017 or so, with 2013 being his peak year.
Crosby is very unfortunate with injuries, he missed 3-7 awards as a result of injuries. Despite that his career PPG is higher and they are within 2o points, with OV having the hotter year this season and Crosby struggling,.
Playoffs, regular season production-wise Crosby is the better player. He is generally considered the better defensive player at the more valuable defensive position. OV is the better goal scorer.
Ovechkin has longevity (especially in goal scoring where his career dominance is unheard of) and a better Peak, but Crosby has Prime and potentially better career once it is said and done
"Better seasons is a convenient way of pretending Crosby wouldn't have had the better season had he been healthy. He was comfortably the best player in the world in several of those years."
-> It's not meant to be deceiving or "convenient". I clearly assessed both the seasons and the players overall. I think it's very important to consider that playing a full season (even with worse /gp paces) is still a better season for your team. This is because a half season or 1/4 season still
assumes that the player would have done that in a full season.
"I don't get how 2019 can be a tie unless your purposely trying to favor OV. Crosby was the better player and better season easily in 2019."
-> 15 goal gap (46%) >= 11 (12%) point gap in my opinion. Both were not even close to the top point producers, but Ovechkin was still the best goal-scorer.
"2013 Crosby had the better season and better player as well. 1 less point in 12 less games. He was going to have 10-15 points above OV and was the face of the NHL from 2011 to 2017 or so, with 2013 being his peak year."
-> Same points, but Ovechkin had more than double the goals. Ovechkin's season was better, even though Crosby was the better player. The whole point of evaluating their seasons without a /gp is to try and compare what their production WAS, not what it could have been.
"Crosby is very unfortunate with injuries, he missed 3-7 awards as a result of injuries."
-> Very true. But I'm not discussing what-if's. I was very clearly comparing what they did do. Also - don't forget that Ovechkin adds 2 Rosses, a Hart, and another Rocket if it weren't for suspensions/personal-leave due to death during Ovi's peak. They both have some what-if's, and it sucks, but that's part of pro-sports.
"Playoffs, regular season production-wise Crosby is the better player."
-> Regular season aside (since that was all discussed above), they're pretty much equal in the playoffs in my opinion. They both have pretty much identical drops in goals/point production in the playoffs compared to their RS numbers (which are both fairly small drops, which is expected and good).
-> Crosby has had more team success, but Ovechkin has lead his team in goals in the PO 3 more times than Crosby (9-6), and the exact same for points (9-6)
-> Plus Ovechkin is underratedly clutch in the playoffs. In playoff games where your team is facing elimination, Ovechkin's point/gp is 22% higher, and his goal/gp is 167% higher than Crosby's is in the same scenario.
In the end, like I said earlier, we'll see a situation where Ovechkin has the edge in Peak play, trophy-count, while also having a MASSIVE "x-factor" that Crosby will not.
