Why Sidney Crosby is better than Alex Ovechkin? Essay Example

now explain why Sidney Crosby is far more important to his team’s success than Alex Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby is more important to his team’s success than Alex Ovechkin for a number of reasons. Sidney Crosby plays center, whereas Alex Ovechkin plays left wing. A center is more important to the team’s success than a winger.

A center is required to take faceoffs, which decide which team starts with possession of the puck. Sidney Crosby is statistically the best at winning faceoffs in the league, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Centers are also required to cover more of the ice and are generally very intelligent players, gifted passers, and very talented defensively (according to a National Post Article. ) Wingers on the other hand have less responsibility defensively and are generally just snipers or goal scorers, similar to Ovechkin.

Alex Ovechkin also has more talented players around him than Sidney Crosby but Crosby is able to make his players better and have more success with less talent than Ovechkin. . Although Sidney Crosby has another top player on his team, Evgeni Malkin, Malkin is also a center and does not play on the same line as Crosby.

However, Ovechkin has a lot of talented players that play with him. Ovechkin has played on the same line as Niklas Backstrom, another top center in the league, and Alex Semin, a talented, albeit overrated winger. In addition to those star forwards, Ovechkin also plays with Mike Green, a very offensively talented, puck-moving defensemen. Playing not just on the same eam, but being on the ice with these talented players helps Ovechkin immensely, it makes him look better and also boosts his

stats a considerable amount.

Without Alex Ovechkin the Caps would have still won their division the past 3 years quite easily. If you take Sidney Crosby off the Penguins I doubt they would make the playoffs at all. Now that I’ve shown you both players’ numbers and explained why Sidney Crosby is more important to his team, I will now explain what has happened when the two play each other head to head, specifically in big, important games. Crosby and Ovechkin have obviously met numerous times in the NHL but they also met in international play as well.

In the 2005 World Junior Championships Crosby’s Team Canada crushed Ovechkin’s Russian team 6-1 in the Gold Medal game, according to thecanadianencyclopedia. com. Crosby and Ovechkin also met in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Going into the tournament many people believed that Russia and Canada would meet in the Gold Medal game and that they were the two most talented teams in the tournament.

Although neither Crosby nor Ovechkin scored a point in this game Crosby’s Canadian team won 7-3 en route to winning the gold after Crosby’s Overtime goal in the Gold Medal game. Crosby has also outperformed Ovechkin when they’ve met in the NHL. In regular season matchups Crosby’s Penguins are 12-6 against Ovechkin’s Capitals. In those 18 games Crosby had 32 points, whereas Ovechkin had 30 points, according to crosbyvsovechkin. com. Then there was the very memorable 7 game series between the Capitals and Penguins in the 2009 NHL Playoffs. In this series, Crosby and Ovechkin took center stage.While Crosby had one less point than Ovechkin, he played better defensively and was a better leader.

He also stepped up big time in game 7 and the Penguins blew out the Capitals 6-2. Crosby had 2 goals and an assist in the game, including the always important, first goal. Ovechkin and the Capitals choked in game 7.

Crosby on the other hand led his penguins in this big game and eventually led them to win the Stanley Cup. This series proved that Crosby is a better player because although individual effort drives team success only through team success does an individual truly triumph. (Show some videos from this series)

Sidney Crosby’s leadership and two-way play, in addition to his scoring touch far trumps the talent and abilities of Alex Ovechkin. On New Year’s Day, the world will watch as Crosby and Ovechkin will face each other again, this time in an outdoor “classic. ” Now that I’ve explained why Crosby is better than Ovechkin, hopefully you will watch the “Winter Classic” and see for yourself.

Bibliography:

1. Crosby vs. Ovechkin. (2010, March 07). Retrieved from http://www. rosbyvsovechkin. com
2. Sidney crosby player profile. (2010, October 27). Retrieved from http://tsn. ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/? id=4093&hubname=nhl-penguins
3. Alex Ovechkin player profile. (2010, October 27). Retrieved from http://tsn. ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/? id=4729&hubname=nhl-capitals
4. Arthur, B. (2009, May 13). Crosby, penguins overwhelm capitals in the end. Retrieved from http://www. nationalpost. com/sports/story. html? id=1593522
5. Gillis, C. (2005, May 9). Sidney crosby(profile). Retrieved from http://www. thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index. cfm? PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012766