Crosby the best, says Babcock

TORONTO — Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews? Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid?

With debate ramping up this week about which player currently stands atop hockey’s thrown as “best in the world” after some incredible early-season performances, Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock’s went with a tried and tested third option for his pick – Sidney Crosby.

“This is what I think,” Babcock began as he made his case for the Penguins captain prior to Pittsburgh’s 3-0 victory over Toronto on Thursday. “I think one guy’s got two Olympic gold medals and three Stanley Cups.” And the other guys?

“They don’t.”

McDavid, the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, owns back-to-back NHL scoring titles and has won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, while Matthews, the Leafs’ deadly sniper, tops this season’s points race with 16 in just eight games.

McDavid, with his blazing speed, set an NHL record earlier this week by becoming the only player to either score or assist on the first nine goals of his team’s campaign.

On the other hand, Matthews and his lethal shot that often leaves an opposing goalie looking up at the replay for a glimpse at a puck that just whizzed into the top corner, is just the fifth player in league history to record seven straight multi-point games to start a season.

Those accomplishments by the 21-year-old phenoms are nice, to be sure, but Babcock said personal accolades only matter so much.

Crosby, 31, has been on top of the hockey world for the better part of the last decade, winning the Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017 to go along with gold medals for Canada at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics.

Had it not been for the concussions that saw him play just 63 of his team’s 164 games between 2010 and 2012, the two-time Hart and Conn Smythe Trophy winner might own even more hardware.

“I don’t think he plans on giving anything away,” Babcock said of Crosby, who he coached at both the Vancouver and Sochi Games, and again at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, which Canada also won. “I saw McDavid play the other night... he had four points and was an absolute star, but these guys (like Crosby) have done it forever.

“Team success in the end, that’s how you’re measured.”