Ovechkin vs. Crosby debate is now over

BY MATT LAFLEUR

Where’s Paul Bearer when you need him?

Because after Sid scored “The Goal” on Sunday, I think we can all agree the Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin debate is now deader than director Kevin Smith’s career.

While Ovie has an extra Hart and two “Rocket” Richard trophies, an award Crosby has put himself in the mix for this season with an already career-best 42 goals, until he actually leads his team to something other than a plane ticket home, can we stop with the comparisons already?

Granted, Ovechkin is entertaining to watch. Hockey analysts swoon over him like school girls, coworkers transform into “lifelong” Caps fans over night, advertisers line-up at his door. But if you’re debating who’s better, by my count, Crosby leads that battle 3-0.

The first victory being the 2005 World Junior Tournament when the Canadians won the gold medal as a couple familiar foes – Mike Richards and Shea Weber – sent Ovechkin to the dressing room with a tear in his eye.  Although, I guess we can all thank that experience for turning Ovie into the league’s dirtiest and most reckless player. If not for the humbling he received from the Canadians, we wouldn’t have all those “awesome” YouTube clips – Jagr hit aside, which was crushing – of him taking ten strides, then leaping off the ice to destroy an unknowing victim.

The second salvo came last summer when Crosby took his Penguins into Washington for Game 7.  Playing in another do-or-die game against his most hated rival, Crosby scored 2 goals and an assist, while Ovechkin once again failed to rise to the occasion and deliver his seminal playoff moment. While Alex the Great did notch a goal in the 6-2 loss, not to mention 14 points in the series, his Caps fell to a not-so-great 1-2 in career game 7’s. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh went on to defeat the Red Wings in one of the most improbable Stanley Cup Final comebacks (down 2-0 and 3-1 to the defending Cup champs) of all-time. Crosby became the youngest NHL captain to ever sip from Lord Stanley’s Cup (and certainly the youngest ever to have sex with it).

The third victory came on Sunday when Crosby scored what I believe will now be considered the third most famous goal in Canadian hockey history behind Paul Henderson in ’72 and Mario Lemieux’s ’87 Canada Cup classic.  With the pressure of an entire country on his shoulders –  and the hockey media anxiously waiting by their laptops to point their collective fingers at his 3^rd period semi-breakaway as the turning point for a US comeback — Crosby rose to the occasion and scored the type of goal that Canadian kids will be re-creating for centuries.

Crosby gave a generation of hockey fans their JFK Moment.  Thanks to him, we’ll never forget where we were when Canada won gold in 2010. And it might never have happened had #87 not evolved into the kind of game-changing sniper he is today. The old Crosby, who looked to pass first and second before shooting third, would have taken the puck around the net and looked to dish it off, but Crosby 2.0 saw that Miller had nowhere to go but down, then slid the puck perfectly underneath his pads.

I remember Steve Starr’s favourite analyst, Nick Kypreos, saying over and over during the intermission that “Crosby isn’t Wayne Gretzky.”  Well, you’re right Nick, he isn’t. While Gretzky’s 99 points in international play is a Canadian record, he never scored a historic game-winning goal for Canada like the one on Sunday.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ovechkin’s Olympics will be remembered for a blow-out quarterfinal loss to Canada and his newfound lust for breaking cameras. The Russian sniper doesn’t even have his precious stats to rely on any longer as Crosby 2.0 currently sits tied with him for the league lead in goals. (It’s also worth mentioning that Ovie’s required 60 more shots for his 42, and that’s not counting the hundreds he’s whistled past the net instead of looking for an open teammate.)

Ovechkin and Crosby have similar resumes, similar individual accomplishments and an identical 1.35 ppg at this point in their careers, but if you ask me, they couldn’t be more different. Find yourself a new rival Alex because like the 2009 Stanley Cup and the 2010 Olympic gold medal, Sidney Crosby owns you.

For The Steve Network, I’m Matt LaFleur.

(Steve Starr would like to point out that the opinions held by Matt Lafleur are his and his alone. He’d also like to point out that Matt LaFleur is not the son of Guy, and therefore, has never been dropped off at a hotel by his father to have sex with a minor. Glad we cleared that up.)

(Steve Starr would also like to point out that Nick Kypreos is not his favourite hockey analyst — he’s just immeasurably better than Darren Dreger — and he’s dismayed that his own correspondents are now taking shots at him.)