No it isn't. Ovechkin kicked the crap out of Crosby from 2005 to 2010. He was better in 4 of the 5 seasons and won 3 Harts, while having more points and a whopping 47% more goals while playing on a worse team. In that span, Ovechkin put up 3 seasons that are all better than Crosby's best season.
Eh, many of the Hart voters have demonstrated a willingness to over-extend themselves for Crosby.
Every Selke vote Sidney Crosby has ever received has been undeserved - clear evidence of wildly over-the-top bias.
They also gave him a Conn Smythe for a 65 point pace / 21 goal pace as a minus player while another player played at a 100 point / 30 goal pace while also contributing much more defensively. One Canadian voter cited Crosby's defense and penalty killing as the rationale. Crosby PK'd for 10 seconds per game in the 2016 playoffs. He didn't shut anyone down. He wasn't good in the finals or against their toughest rival (2 points against the Capitals). They simply wanted to give Sid a trophy, and that's all there is to it.
There is no rational basis for claiming Crosby had a top 5 most valuable season in 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023, or 2024. He didn't lead the NHL in anything, nor was he top 5 in anything. Crosby was winning votes over players who had more points and more goals, while contributing more penalty killing and better defense. Two of those seasons his team didn't even make the playoffs. So what's the case here for Crosby to appear on anyone's top 5 Hart ballot in '23 or '24? I've never actually heard anyone make a serious case for that.
Anyway, your summary of their careers post 2010 is a wild history revision.
Over that span Crosby has 69 more points and Ovechkin has 175 more goals - and this includes age 37 and age 38 seasons for Ovechkin. Ovechkin has 837 primary points to Crosby's 817. You painted this as some sort of blow out. The stats prove otherwise.
To be fair, Ovechkin won two Harts in that 2005-'10 timespan while Crosby won one. Both won an Art Ross. Ovechkin was excellent in this time, we all saw that, but Sid still has the most points out of any of them in a season at that time. I'll give Ovie the edge in the 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons. Crosby the edge in 2007 and for sure the biggest gap between them in any of their seasons. But you are acting as if the rest of the years aren't close. Crosby was having the team success and the playoff success. As well as in the Olympics.
2005-'10:
Crosby - 506 points in 371 games for 1.36 PPG
Ovechkin - 529 points in 396 games for 1.33 PPG
Man that is awfully close. This is why I always consider them 1a) 1b) in that era. It was like steak or lobster. I always like to pick the centre who makes the players around him better, but in all honesty Ovechkin was so explosive at this time it makes you think a lot in his direction too. Your quote that he "kicked the crap out of Crosby" in this timeframe is wildly inaccurate. It was a coin flip.
Then we go post-2010 and the shift happens.
Crosby - 1090 points in 901 games for a PPG of 1.21
Ovechkin - 1021 points in 1030 games for a PPG of 0.99
Damn man, that is some separation there. What is it you think that Ovechkin did to make up for a 0.22 PPG deficit over 14 seasons?
You have to remember some advantages Ovechkin has had too. Brooks Orpik shot a puck that hit Crosby in the face in 2013 which caused him to miss 25% of the season or else Crosby is winning the Art Ross and Hart in a cake walk. He was easily the best player in the NHL that year and was still close to winning the Hart and Art Ross. As it was, he still won the Pearson.
I am just trying to figure out who you are talking about that had a monster 2016 playoffs (on pace for a 100 point season). It wasn't Kessel, and Kessel is the only guy who outscored Crosby on the Pens. Are you talking about Logan Couture on the Sharks? He did have a great postseason, 30 points and all, but there are 6 times in NHL history that a player on the losing team has won the Smythe, and this is the first time I ever heard that someone claimed Couture should have won it. I would say this, he has as good of a shot as any if the Sharks win the Cup. Martin Jones and Brent Burns come to mind also. But he was not winning this in a losing cause. McDavid in 2024 you simply could not ignore, Couture wasn't at that level.
Crosby had two previous better runs to the Cup than in 2016 where he didn't win the Smythe, but what were the options in 2016? I've got Kessel, Letang, Crosby and maybe Matt Murray as the options. Malkin had one less point than Crosby, so perhaps he is in the mix too. But this was not a cakewalk for anyone. Crosby had 3 game winners and even things like his instructions to Letang before the faceoff of the overtime goal in Game 2 of the Cup final was an example of how his leadership was being viewed. No one on the Pens had a postseason that stood out. Did Crosby get it because it was close enough and they just gave it to him? I think that got him over the hump yes, but there was not exactly anyone else that you couldn't ignore. Did Ovechkin benefit from being Ovechkin and the captain and a feel good story of him raising the Cup to winning the Conn Smythe? If we say this about Crosby in 2016 doesn't the same apply to Ovechkin? Kuznetsov had 5 more points and that Smythe could have easily gone to Holtby who made a memorable save in the Cup final that is probably as critical and outlandish as a save in such an important game as, what, maybe 10 other saves in NHL history? Plus he had great numbers too. Hey, I am fine with Ovechkin getting it, he earned it, just like Crosby earned it in 2016. But could it have gone to others in both situations? Oh yeah. It doesn't mean it still wasn't a good run.
And we are still in a situation where Crosby could get 90-100 points again this year, and probably will. I'm sorry, the guy has simply had a better career than Ovechkin.
