In Classic Matchup, the Penguins’ Star Shines the Brightest

By JEFF Z. KLEIN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
December 31, 2010

The stars align at Heinz Field: Alex Ovechkin, left, will lead the Capitals against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in a night game outdoors.(Jamie Squire/Getty Images, left; Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH — Each N.H.L. Winter Classic has had a theme. The first, amid the fat snowflakes of suburban Buffalo in 2008, was about playing outdoors to celebrate the origins of hockey. The next two were about playing at two iconic baseball stadiums, Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park.

This year’s game, to be played at Heinz Field on Saturday, between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, is mainly about Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.

The latest Crosby-Ovechkin showdown will occur under the stars after the N.H.L. announced Friday that the game’s start time would be moved to 8 p.m. from 1 p.m. because of a forecast for rain Saturday afternoon. The move to the evening adds a new dimension to the Classic, and to the personal rivalry between Crosby and Ovechkin, which fans have been getting an intimate look at through HBO’s “24/7” series.

But the Penguins’ Crosby said he did not see the outdoor game as being particularly meaningful when it came to the competition between the two stars and their teams.

“I think it’s like that every game we play, whether it’s this situation, a regular-season game in Washington or here,” Crosby said Friday. “That’s always going to be there. We both understand that. But we both want to win at the end of the day. We both bring the best out in each other, and that’s been the case for a number of years.”

The Eastern Conference-leading Penguins (25-11-3) have been on a tear over the last six weeks, winning 16 of 20 games as Crosby produced a 25-game point streak, the longest in the N.H.L. since 1992-93. The streak ended Wednesday in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

Crosby leads the league with 32 goals and 65 points, and his defensive play has also excelled — his plus-20 differential is No. 2 in the league.

The Capitals (22-12-5) have been better lately, with four victories in their last five games. But before that they lost eight in a row, and HBO viewers were treated to Coach Bruce Boudreau’s profanity-ridden pleas to his team to stop seeming so depressed.

Ovechkin, meanwhile, has 14 goals in 39 games, putting him on track for his worst N.H.L. season. That figure includes goals in his last two games, but before that he had scored only twice in 19 games.

Given the contrast between their performances and those of their teams, it is hardly surprising that the Crosby that HBO viewers have seen is outgoing, polite and always with a ready smile. The Ovechkin they have seen has sometimes seemed quiet, even sullen.

Reporters know that Crosby is like that all the time, at least in public settings. But while Ovechkin can be monosyllabic and is sometimes grudging in giving interviews, he has never seemed quite as downcast as he has this season.

It is probably a simple matter of how badly things have gone for Ovechkin since the Vancouver Olympics last February. The Russians were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Canada, which went on to win the gold medal on Crosby’s overtime goal. Then the Capitals were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

That early exit at least enabled Ovechkin to join the Russian team playing at the I.I.H.F. World Championship tournament in Switzerland. But Russia lost in the final to the Czech Republic, a fitting capper to an annus horribilis for Ovechkin.

After the events of last season, the Capitals’ occasional struggles this season and the unflinching eye of the HBO series, Ovechkin’s aura seems diminished.

This week, for example, an ESPN poll of N.H.L. players asking which player they thought was better gave a unanimous result in favor of Crosby. A larger Sports Illustrated poll taken last season resulted in a 50-50 split.

Crosby got a vote of confidence from Mario Lemieux, the former Penguins great and current team owner in whose home Crosby lived until last summer. Lemieux had not spoken publicly in a formal setting since the 2009 playoffs, so his words carried extra weight.

“I think so,” said Lemieux, when asked if he thought Crosby dominates the game to the same level Lemieux once did. “It’s much tougher now to dominate, the way the league is set up. For him to go out there and do the things he does every night, every shift, is incredible.”

Lemieux, who had just come off the ice after recording two assists in the Penguins-Capitals alumni game, added: “His talent is unbelievable, his strength and his skating ability and his shooting ability has gotten better over the last couple years. His work ethic is the best in the world, and that’s why he is the best in the world.”

It is hard to argue with Lemieux, but he is probably inclined to back Crosby. In the larger scheme of things, it is hard to choose between Crosby and Ovechkin.

Crosby has one Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player; Ovechkin has two. But Crosby has a Stanley Cup title and an Olympic gold medal, and Ovechkin has neither.

In 20 head-to-head regular-season matchups, Crosby has 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points to Ovechkin’s 17 goals and 13 assists for 30.

In their one playoff matchup, the memorable 2009 quarterfinal won by Pittsburgh in seven games, Crosby had 8 goals and 5 assists for 13 points to Ovechkin’s 8 goals and 6 assists for 14.