LOVERRO: NHL needed Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry

OPINION:

It’s appropriate that Alex Ovechkin ends his historic regular season for the Washington Capitals in Pittsburgh on Thursday against the Penguins and his rival and comrade, Sidney Crosby.

The careers of the two future Hall of Famers have been linked together by competition and resurrection — the salvation of the NHL. They were the league’s version of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, whose rivalry many believe helped save the NBA.

“We saved the NHL,” Ovechkin told The Athletic in 2023. He punctuated that statement two years later, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record with his 895th goal on April 6 on the road against the New York Islanders.

They both came into the NHL — Ovechkin as a 20-year-old phenom from Russia and Crosby as a hyped 18-year-old from Canada — following the year-long 2004 labor lockout that lost an entire season and left damage in its wake.

NHL officials hoped the two would repair that damage.

In 2006, Sports Illustrated wrote about the two young superstars: “Over the coming months, they will grow closer because their careers are linked not only by their age and talent, but also by their status as the foundation for a league trying to rebuild itself.

“After getting its on-ice product in order in its first season following the 2004-05 lockout, the NHL is scrambling (yet again) to gain a foothold in the U.S. sports fan’s imagination. The league isn’t as concerned that Crosby and Ovechkin get to know each other this season as it is that you get to know them.”

Both players delivered.

“We banked a lot on them,” Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan told The Athletic. “We’d lost a season. Our fans just wanted hockey back. But we had to make these new rules to open up the game, make it more attractive to our fans, casual fans, advertisers, everybody.”

It is hard to ignore the growth of the NHL during the Ovechkin-Crosby era, with revenue tripling during that time. Certainly, the rivalry was part of the juice.

“Coming out of the lockout, it is fair to say they saved the league,” said Ryan Kennedy, editor in chief of The Hockey News. “The NHL was coming out of the low-scoring, clutch-and-grab era and instantly you had two dynamic rookies ushering in a new dawn for the game. The fact one was Canadian and the other Russian didn’t hurt, either.”

Ovechkin bested Crosby for the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year in 2005-06. They have won five Hart trophies between them for the league’s most valuable player — Ovechkin with three and Crosby two. Ovechkin has won nine Rocket Richard trophies for the league’s top goal scorer, while Crosby, more of a passer, won two. Crosby has broken Gretzky’s record for the most seasons averaging at least a point per game, achieving the feat for the 20th time in his career.

As Ovechkin’s career went on, there was the possibility that the legacy of the rivalry – Stanley Cup playoff success – was going to be a one-sided story. Crosby would lead the Penguins to three Stanley Cups, with head-to-head playoff wins over Ovechkin and the Capitals in 2009, 2016 and 2017. Like much of Ovechkin’s legacy, the rivalry gained some valuable balance when the Capitals defeated the Penguins in the 2018 postseason on their way to Ovechkin’s lone Stanley Cup championship.

Without that title, the Bird-Magic comparison might not hold up.

“In terms of Bird and Magic, it’s a pretty good comparison,” Kennedy said. “There was certainly a rivalry early on, what with Crosby and Ovechkin having such different personalities and styles of play. Toss in the race for team success between Pittsburgh and Washington, and you had two superstars vying for titles in the ensuing years — though obviously it took the Capitals longer to get their championship.”

Those battles have resulted in strong mutual respect between the two greats. Crosby had high praise for his rival when reporters asked him for a response to Ovechkin’s record-setting goal. “Playing against each other for 20 years and him accomplishing some great things over that time, but this one was probably thought to not be attainable, and he found a way to do it,” he said. “So, it’s pretty incredible. An amazing moment for him, his family, his teammates and obviously the whole league.”

Ovechkin and Crosby have been amazing and incredible for 20 years. The NHL needed them to be.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.