Anyone who's followed hockey at all during the past few years -- or accidentally caught some hockey highlights between basketball game recaps on ESPN -- has heard the argument. The traditionally logic goes something like this: They're both great players. Ovechkin's the better scorer, Crosby the better distributer and playmaker.
Generally, the stats have borne this out. They've played about the same number of NHL games, but Ovechkin has 254 career assists to Crosby's 309, according to NHL.com. Ovechkin has a staggering 2,122 shots; Crosby has barely half that with 1,205. Ovechkin's scored on 12.4 percent of his for 264 goals; Crosby has scored on 14.7 percent of his for 177 goals.
Ovechkin: great individual talent. Crosby: great team player. Right? Well...
Despite playing 10 fewer games this year (the suspensions aren't helping, Ovie), Ovechkin has 9 more assists. What to make of this? Is Ovechkin suddenly a pass-first player? Not exactly. He still has 45 goals on 325 shots. (Crosby has the same number of goals on almost 60 fewer shots.)
But it does challenge the conventional wisdom on Ovechkin. He's developed into a better passer than expected early in his career. With 53 assists already, he's on pace for about 60 for the season, six more than his previous career high and way more than the entire Wizards team (I kid of course).
The Capitals have got to be happy with their star's development, and it should pay dividends come playoff time. No wonder their other stars Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin are playing well.
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