Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry is the gift that keeps on giving
Caps star beats Pens nemesis to 1,000 points
Alex Ovechkin needed all of 35 seconds to score and notch his 1,000th career point in a 5-2 victory at home against his nemesis Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.
The Penguins captain, and Ovechkin's main adversary in their 12 NHL seasons together, will join the Great Eight in the 1,000-point club in the next few weeks.
Ovechkin reached the milestone in career game No. 880 and he added a power-play goal in the second period for an impressive 1.14-points per game average over his career.
Crosby is 17 points shy of the 1,000-point milestone but has played in only 741 career regular-season games because of concussion problems. As a result, Crosby has a better points-per-game average at 1.33.
Ovechkin, meanwhile, holds a big lead in career goals with 546 to Crosby's 364.
But Hall of Fame statistics are just part of the story for these foes, tethered since they met in the 2005 world junior gold-medal final in Grand Forks, N.D., a one-sided affair in favour of Crosby and Canada.
They entered the NHL together in 2005 and together have played a massive role in reviving fan interest after the lockout-cancelled season.
Ovechkin won the Calder Trophy in that first season, a scoring race two seasons later, six Rocket Richard Trophies as the league's goal-scoring champion and three Hart Trophies as the league MVP.
Crosby has won two NHL scoring races, a Rocket Richard Trophy and the Hart Trophy twice.
Springtimes of discontent
But Crosby has a huge advantage in team championships. Sid the Kid has two Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, a world championship and a World Cup of Hockey title.
Ovechkin has celebrated the world championship three times and that's it. His Capitals teams have never advanced past the second round of the playoffs.
The Russian star burns at Washington's lack of success — so much so that, last March, when the Capitals were in California for a road trip, he invited Wayne Gretzky for a sushi dinner in Malibu on an off day.
Ovechkin drilled the Great One for advice and knowledge on how to get the Capitals over the championship hump. The message from Gretzky was that Ovechkin's time would come. The dinner conversation reminded Gretzky of when he was younger and peppered Gordie Howe with similar inquiries.
Last spring was especially difficult on Ovechkin. His Capitals cruised through the regular season and finished first overall to win the Presidents' Trophy. But for the second time in their careers, Ovechkin and Crosby clashed in the post-season, and for the second time, Crosby and the Penguins triumphed.
About a month later, after Ovechkin and the Russians settled for bronze at home in Moscow at the world championship, Crosby and the Penguins celebrated a Stanley Cup victory and No. 87 won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
'I hope this is going to be our year'
Seven months later, the feeling is that this just may be Ovechkin's best chance at hoisting the Cup.
The Capitals don't appear to be a team concerned with winning another Presidents Trophy. Instead, they have been focused on defence and lead the league in goals against. They have depth and one of the game's top goaltenders in Braden Holtby.
Washington has come on lately with a seven-game win streak and appears to be peaking at the right time.
"I think we don't have to look back, just look forward," Ovechkin told NBCSN in a pregame interview on Wednesday. "We have had some bad experiences in the past. We haven't been to the third round yet. "We're going to try and do it this year. We have a solid goalie and solid Ds and our group of forwards is as talented as any team. I hope this is going to be our year."
Standing in the way, however, are old Crosby and the Penguins, even though the Columbus Blue Jackets have built the best record in the East through the first three months of the season.
The Penguins are only two points back of the Capitals. They had won five straight prior to their loss in Washington on Wednesday, and have gone 13-2-2 since Dec. 1.
Crosby, despite missing the first six games of the season because of a concussion, is tops in the NHL with 26 goals in 33 games. He's on pace to score a career-high 60 times.
Playoff collision course
But more importantly, Crosby would love to receive the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for the second successive June.
This is something that hasn't been done since captain Steve Yzerman and the Detroit Red Wings accomplished the feat in 1996-97 and 1997-98.
If the playoffs were to begin today, the Penguins and Capitals would meet in the first round. Another Crosby versus Ovechkin series would be quite a first-round match-up.
"We've played against each other for a long time in playoff matches and stuff like that. It's there," said Crosby, when asked about the Pens-Caps and Ovie-Crosby rivalry last night. "I think it was more heated when we were younger. But it's there. We both want to win. We both want to be at our best."
The game and the fans are thankful for that
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