Sid vs. Alex is a Super matchup on any day
It started with Sid and Alex, this throbbing rivalry between the Penguins and Washington Capitals. Of course, it did.
Sid Crosby and Alex Semin. Fooled you with my choice of Alexanders, didn’t I?
“What’s so special about him? I don’t see anything special there,” Semin said of Crosby early in the 2008-09 season.
Crosby shrugged off Semin’s ridiculous observation the way he shrugs off a defender when he has the puck. “It’s not like I need a reason to be motivated.”
Not against the Capitals, certainly.
I can’t wait to watch the two teams go at it Sunday afternoon in D.C. for the first time this season. Penguins-Capitals has become Pittsburgh’s best sports rivalry.
The Capitals bring out the best in Crosby. One reason is he knows the Penguins almost certainly have to beat the Capitals in the playoffs to win a championship. That’s what happened in 2009, 2016 and 2017 when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. Another reason is Crosby knows he’ll always be linked with the other Alex in this story, the only Alex who matters with the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin. Crosby took a big lead over Ovechkin in the best-playerin-the-world race by leading the Penguins to those three Cups and leading Canada to two Olympic gold medals. Ovechkin closed the gap a bit by helping the Capitals to take out the Penguins in the 2018 playoffs on the way to their first and only Cup.
Crosby and Ovechkin have continued to play amazing hockey. You know what Crosby has done since returning from his sports hernia surgery – four goals and 11 points in six games. He scored the overtime winner Friday night to beat Philadelphia. All Ovechkin has done this season is score 37 goals. He has moved ahead of Luc Robitaille, Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier into eighth place on the NHL’s alltime goals list with 695.
The memories Crosby and Ovechkin already have produced will last a lifetime.
Go back to the 2009 playoffs when Crosby and Ovechkin put on a dazzling show. Each had a hat trick in the Capitals’ 4-3 win in Game 2. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped Ovechkin on a breakaway early in a scoreless Game 7 in Washington before Crosby scored the first goal moments later in the Penguins’ 6-2 win. Crosby finished the series with eight goals and 13 points, Ovechkin with eight goals and 14 points.
Go back to the 2017 playoffs. Fleury again tormented
Ovechkin, stopping his thirdperiod, point-blank shot with his stick in the Penguins’ 2-0 win in Game 7 in Washington. Fleury immediately patted his stick and talked to it on the ice, “Thank you. Good job.” The win almost seemed too good to believe because it came without injured Kris Letang and after the Penguins lost Games 5 and 6, 4-2 and 5-2.
The Capitals history of frustration against Crosby and the Penguins made their series win in 2018 especially enjoyable. Ovechkin set up Evgeny Kuznetsov on a breakaway in overtime for the winning goal in the 2-1 win at PPG Paints Arena. The Capitals went on to beat Tampa Bay and Vegas to win the Cup. Ovechkin still hasn’t stopped celebrating.
Ovechkin and Crosby also were involved in violent, even dirty collisions during games between the teams. It doesn’t matter to Ovechkin if the opponent is a fellow Russian. He and Evgeni Malkin were picked Nos. 1 and 2 in the 2004 draft. Ovechkin routinely went out of his way to take a run at Malkin early in their career. He also took out Sergei Gonchar’s knee in the 2009 playoffs.
Crosby was on the receiving end of a vicious crosscheck to the head from former teammate Matt Niskanen in the 2017 playoffs. Crosby was lucky he missed just one game.
The Penguins-Capitals games have been memorable for several other untoward moments. Former Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik chased down Olli Maatta and drilled him in the head in the 2016 playoffs, getting a threegame suspension. Letang was suspended for one game in those same playoffs for a high hit on Marcus Johansson. Then, there is Tom Wilson, who has become Pittsburgh’s No. 1 villain. He was fined for kneeing Conor Sheary in the 2016 playoffs, knocked Brian Dumoulin out of a game in the 2018 playoffs and broke Zach AstonReese’s jaw in the next game in 2018. Wilson, who was suspended three games for the Aston-Reese hit, laughed in Jamie Oleksiak’s face when Oleksiak challenged him three times to fight, prompting Jim Rutherford to say, derisively, “He couldn’t run quick enough to get away from him.” Wilson did go with Oleksiak when the teams played the next season, although Rutherford hardly thought it was a fair fight. “All I know is, in that fight, Wilson didn’t even give Oleksiak a chance to get his gloves off.”
Who knows what Wilson will do Sunday? Maybe he’ll score the winning goal. Or maybe it will be Letang, who scored in overtime in Game 3 of the 2009 playoffs to keep the Penguins from falling into a 3-0 hole. Or maybe Bryan Rust, who scored the winning goal in Game 7 in 2017. Or maybe Nick Bonino, who scored in overtime in clinching Game 6 in 2016 after the Penguins had taken three late, delay-of-game penalties in a 2:02 span …
Wait, Bonino is gone. That’s OK.
Crosby and Ovechkin will be there Sunday. That makes the game must-see TV. It might just be the best game on Super Sunday.