Quote:
Originally Posted by DeToxRox
I'd attribute a lot of that to Ovechkin starting off really slowly. He has a lot of pressure on him, and unlike Crosby, he doesn't have as much talent surrounding him. Still, his lapses this year have been pretty inexcusable, though the empty netter I don't mind as much because a lot of goal scorers need that first one to get rolling. He probably saw his chance and took it. I mean outside of his game vs Chicago, he has been pretty meh.
I still don't know who is better between he or Crosby. I like AO more, but Crosby does a lot for his team which gives him a slight edge. I think Ovechkin has shown he can be great defensivley if he can harness his intensity, but like you said last night, he still obviously can't.
I think in 2-3 years we'll know for sure, but for now I'll give it to Crosby since his team has played (and ahem lost) for a Cup.
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I didn't even mean this in the 'who is the better player' argument way.
But I do agree that the overused cliche of he makes his team better holds true. Crosby had (arguably) one weakness heading into the season- faceoffs. He's at 54% right now, and has taken more draws than any player in the league. 54% isn't great, but I'd guess at the end of the season, that's in the top 25. Now, I see 20X the number of Pens games then I see Caps games. But the only times Ovechkin bothered to help deep in the defensive zone was when he was running around trying to smash Malkin. More often then not, he was leaving the zone looking for a breakout pass.
I'll also argue that, while it held true a few years ago, the talent disparity is not as great anymore. Ovechkin-Semin-Backstrom - Federov - Green - Clark compares pretty favorably to Crosby - Malkin - Staal - Letang - Sykora.