Ottawa— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010
PITTSBURGH, PA - DECEMBER 28: Sidney Crosby had two goals and two assists in the Penguins 6-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at Consol Energy Center on December 28, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crosby leads the NHL with 32 goals and 65 points and his current 25-game scoring streak is the 11th longest in league history.(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)Who ever imagined that Mother Nature would turn into the Grinch?
And yet, as Christmas passes and the week slides toward Saturday’s Winter Classic, they are calling for 53F temperatures (the game is in Pittsburgh, remember) along with three hours of rain with a 20-per-cent possibility of thunderstorms.
They’d cancel a golf tournament under such circumstances. How could they then allow a hockey game to proceed, with players connected to the water by steel blades? If someone were to score, who would dare raise a composite stick to the skies?
Nature teaches us that things do not always go as planned, but weather has nothing to do with the cloud over what was intended to be the most compelling focus of the 2011 Winter Classic: a showdown between the world’s two best hockey players, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby and the Washington Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin.
It is hard to believe that less than a year ago, heading into the Olympics, there was passionate debate about who was the superior player, Sid the Kid or Ovie, with Ovechkin the runaway favourite of the young set who decide the gods of this winter game.
It seemed, then, a made-for-Hollywood plot: the fresh-faced, polite, small-town Canadian up against the rugged, Cro-Magnon-faced world-beater from Moscow. Ovechkin had the brass, the flash and the over-the-top personality; Crosby had the steady skills and the church demeanour so treasured by hockey fans who have worshipped at the altars of Beliveau, Orr, Gretzky.
They had their similarities – each with trophies for leading scorer, best player and, as of last spring, top goal scorer in the NHL. But they also had their differences. Ovechkin seems capable of growing a beard between periods; Crosby’s mustache is even the butt of his own jokes. And, of course, they conveniently dislike each other. Intensely.
But gradually, at first almost imperceptibly, a gap began to spread on the ice. Crosby kept improving as a player, diligently working on those facets of the game – defensive play, shooting, faceoffs – that he himself had determined needed improvement. Ovechkin stuck to his original game: the freelance attack, the passionate drive to the net, the phenomenal release, the take-no-prisoners hits. Ovechkin’s unpredictability became predictable. Crosby’s predictability – he would work relentlessly to improve – became unknowable until he showed it.
And though both became captains of their teams at young ages, the “C” on Crosby seemed to lift him – the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009 and are currently the best team in the league – while Ovechkin’s “C” has at times seemed to carry a weight unintended as he tries to play all six positions at once in the hopes of righting a good team that hasn’t been quite right for weeks.
While it seemed at one point not long ago that the two would do battle for scoring championships and MVP honours until Heinz Field froze over permanently, such is no longer the case. Crosby is running away with the scoring race as once Gretzky and Lemieux would.
On Sunday night in Ottawa, when the Senators downed the Penguins 3-1, Crosby scored late to extend his scoring streak to 24 games, the longest the NHL has seen in 20 years. It was his 30th goal of the year, more than any other player. That same night in Raleigh, Ovechkin also scored as Washington won 3-2 over the Carolina Hurricanes. It was his 13th goal of the season. That and an assist moved Ovechkin to a tie for sixth in the scoring race, 20 points back of Crosby.
This, sadly, no longer sounds like a once-in-a-generation rivalry to equal the Rocket and Gordie Howe, Gretzky and Lemieux.
Ovechkin remains a remarkably good hockey player, but he has lost – or perhaps just misplaced – the on-ice dominance that so quickly became his signature.
Theories abound on why this might be – the “C” has changed his game, he never recovered from Russia’s embarrassing showing at the Olympics, he has not been able to win the Stanley Cup – but none of them makes pure sense.
All that can be fairly noted is that while Crosby enjoys his Golden Year – the overtime goal that won the Olympics, the remarkable scoring streak – Ovechkin is dealing with his first off year.
Crosby says he’s keen to play this weekend even if it’s in the rain.
“I’m sure we’ve all done that some time in our lives anyway,” he says.
Ovechkin, it must be presumed, would play even through lightning – eager for the chance, with so many watching, to prove that “The Game’s Best Player” is still up for discussion.
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