Detroit played their top defensive guys against him and look at that team aside from Malkin.
Oh wow a top line player had to face the opponent's top defenders? That is totally unprecedented!
When Ovechkin plays, opposing teams serve their best defenders poolside martinis while Ovie skates unopposed.
Winning the Stanley Cup is an arbitrary factor in determining who the greatest player of all time is?
Actually yes, it largely is.
Winning a cup in 1951 - when there were 6 teams - vs winning a cup in 1985 - when there were 21 teams - is very different from winning a cup in 2022 - when there are 32 teams.
A blanket statement that equivocates these things is not equitable to modern players. The chances of an all-time great player going without ever winning a cup are massively higher now than they were in the O6 era, and significantly higher now than in Gretzky and Lemieux's heyday.
Lemieux never won squat without 6 other hall of famers on his team. He wasn't the GM, and he didn't control that happenstance, therefore giving him credit for it is arbitrary. Same goes for Gretzky. McDavid has never remotely had the advantage Lemieux had in 1992, so it's simply gibberish to hold McDavid to that expectation despite gargantuan relative disadvantages to what Lemieux had to work with in terms of teammates.
Nevermind that none of those championship Oilers or Penguins teams would come anywhere near fitting under a salary cap.