Ovie-Crosby rivalry losing its lustre
Their decade-long duelling just seems to have fizzled out
It was terrific while it lasted, and it lasted for almost a full decade.
But it’s time to acknowledge the Crosby-Ovechkin era in the NHL is dead. Over.
Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are both still very much in the league, mind you, important players on the same teams, Pittsburgh and Washington. We’ll likely have them around for five to 10 more years, and this is shaping up to be a season in which Ovechkin and the Capitals should have a serious shot at winning that franchise’s first championship. All that said, it’s just not the same, is it? Even this week, when Ovechkin hit a career milestone with his 500th career goal and prompted a discussion in some quarters as to whether he had surpassed Crosby in terms of overall career achievements, the debate — such as it was —was tepid and shortlived. There was none of the old vigour and fire and passion to it as there was in the old days, which in this case would be around the years 2007-2012.
Then, the Crosby-Ovechkin narrative was sizzling hot. It was the best the league had enjoyed since the days when some would argue Mario Lemieux was better than Wayne Gretzky, and better than that, really, since the careers of No. 66 and No. 99 didn’t quite overlap in a Bird-Magic kind of way to allow for direct comparison.
No, Crosby vs. Ovechkin was magically rich stuff with real substance to it and the league milked it, understandably. The most spectacular time might have been when they delivered matching hat tricks in Game 2 of their 2009 playoff joust. The peak of the hype was at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but when that fizzled because a grumpy Ovechkin had a weak tournament and the Russians went out with a whimper, it seemed to signal the slow decline of that once glorious individual rivalry.
Nowadays, neither sits in the top 10 of NHL scorers, or leads their respective team in scoring. Ovechkin sits behind teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom, while Crosby is suffering through an off season and sits behind teammate Evgeni Malkin, buried in 39th spot on the NHL scoring derby.
Crosby wasn’t even invited to this month’s all-star game. There’s often a back story to these matters, and sometimes players ask the league not to go, but still this would have once been an unthinkable slight given the league has total control over these matters, and given how Crosby used to drive the league’s sales and marketing plans.
Ovechkin won the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP in 2013 and Crosby in 2014, so it’s not like their dominance is a distant memory. But here in early 2016 neither is now regarded as the world’s best player, although Ovechkin is still the most flamboyant. The unofficial title of best of the best is more likely owned by Jonathan Toews or Anze Kopitar, while Patrick Kane is running away with the NHL’s scoring race and Dallas forward Jamie Benn is widely seen as the player who encompasses all the most necessary attributes of an NHL star.
None are even close to Ovechkin or Crosby in terms of magnetism or appeal. But the Washington and Pittsburgh captains aren’t what they were in that regard, either, leaving the league in some degree of deficit in terms of having an individual rivalry to sell. Toews, Kane and Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist led the NHL in jersey sales in 2015, which is one indicator of which players are viewed as the most popular or compelling.
Beyond that, gone is the sense that Crosby and Ovechkin, two future Hall of Famers, play off each other or see each other as setting a standard for the other or even don’t like each other.
The Penguins have fallen back in the NHL standings this season and may not make the playoffs, which means there would be no Pens-Caps playoff encounter for the seventh consecutive spring. The Capitals must surely view the New York Rangers as their chief post-season nemesis now, having played the Blueshirts in all four of their last visits to the post-season.
An NHL lifetime ago, it was all about Crosby and Ovechkin. Remember the television commercial with Ovechkin acting out playing a prank on Crosby? Or something less playful and friendly — Ovechkin flapping his arms like a chicken in Crosby’s direction during a game that season?
Even before that, Crosby was part of the Canadian team that swamped Ovechkin and the Russians at the 2005 world juniors in Grand Forks, a game that included Crosby landing a solid, punishing hit on his new rival. Although Ovechkin was drafted a year earlier and is almost 23 months older, they entered the NHL as simultaneous super-novas at a time when the league was seeking to bring back offence and fun and entertainment.
Ovechkin ended up with 52 goals and won the Calder Trophy that first season, and scored the goal that knocked Canada out of the Winter Olympics in Turin. Crosby broke the 100-point barrier, but wasn’t selected by Wayne Gretzky to play for Canada.
The next season, Crosby won the Hart and was named Pittsburgh’s captain. Washington missed the playoffs, partly because they were dominated by the Penguins, and Ovechkin didn’t finish as one of the NHL’s leading scorers. The year after that, Ovechkin scored 65 goals and won the Hart but the Penguins made it to the Stanley Cup final.
In 2007, Crosby signed a five-year deal averaging $8.7 million (U.S.) per season to match his No. 87 jersey number. A few months later, the proud Ovechkin inked a 13-year contract that averaged $9.538 million, higher than Crosby’s. Take that. That’s how it went for years. Back and forth, trick shot for trick shot, tit for tat, each one raising the bar. Once upon a time we’d circle the dates in anticipation when the Pens and Caps were to meet next because it was sure to be delicious.
Well, it’s not like that anymore. Both have settled into what can be described as their middle age as far as being NHL stars. Ovechkin is 30, Crosby 28. Ovechkin has 501goals and the stronger team at the moment. Crosby has his Stanley Cup ring and two Olympic golds.
The fire of being exceptional still burns for both, just not quite so brightly, and not quite so in the face of the other.
Which is fine. But not as much sizzling as it was. Damien Cox is a broadcaster with Rogers Sportsnet and a regular contributor to Hockey Night in Canada. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star, and his column appears here Saturdays. Follow him @DamoSpin.