Friday, April 4, 2008 NHL 2008 Playoff Preview Eastern Conf. 1. y-Pittsburgh 2. y-Montreal 3. Carolina 4. x-New Jersey 5. NY Rangers 6. Ottawa 7. Washington 8. Boston 9.) Philadelphia Western Conf. 1. zz-Detroit 2. y-San Jose 3. x-Minnesota 4. x-Anaheim 5. x-Dallas 6. x-Colorado 7. Calgary 8. Nashville 9.) Vancouver 39-31-10 88 2 x-clinched playoff berth y-division winner zz-best record Ultimate Debate: Crosby vs. Ovechkin While there are many skilled players in the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins’Sidney Crosby and the Washington Capitals’Alexander Ovechkin stand out from the rest of the crowd. With two?. Sports Commentary The excitement is building to what will inevitably be one of the most skillfully intense postseasons in years for the NHL. Crosby. Ovechkin. Zetterberg. Thornton. Iginla. What appear as simple, foreign names to the average eye. appear as heros. leaders and saviors to the avid hockey follower. These players are playing for more than the love of hockey, even more for the love of their team, but most importantly- they want the cup. No. they need the cup. It's all about the Stanley Cup starting on April 9, but until then, why not tackle the biggest hockey debate of the year. Who is better, Crosby or Ovechkin? Personally, I think it's ridiculous not to include the analysis of another Pittsburgh Penguin- one that has, in my mind, proved himself more than just a terrific hock ey player in the Steeltown. This player is, without question, Evgeni Malkin, but let's save that for another time and get down to steel blades on ice. First off. it is hard to put the biases aside, as 1 have been a die-hard Pens fan since I remember my first Stanley Cup win in 1991, however with an issue such as this. I will. So 1 will begin by saying that Alexander Ovechkin is. with no argument, one of the finest players to play in the game. If you are a Pens fan, and constantly swear that Ovechkin is the most overrated player in the NHL, then you are wrong. However, it is very hard to make an accu rate comparison between him and “Sid the Kid”. They are simply two different hockey players. Crosby is a leader in his third year. While he con tinues to highlight his team’s games with unbeliev able individual moves, he is a team player, an all around hustler, who doesn't mind sticking up for the rest of his team when the game gets rough. If you are the typical Crosby hater (meaning that you constantly pick on Crosby because he’s a baby, one of the most common critiques I hear) then it means that you do not follow the game of hockey enough and just love to hate a great man of the game. Crosby has fought. Bravely. He is not scared to fight for his team when they need it. I’m not talk ing about the Georges Laraque fighting methods. I’m talking about taking on the other side when too many cheap shots occur (which seem to happen all too often against the Pens). To be a great hockey player is not just to score the most goals in a season. You have to be a team play er. That is what truly defines a great hockey player of the game because hockey is based on team play. I understand that Ovechkin does not have the same players to work with as Crosby, but that could just be because he does not give them the opportunity. In 80 games this season, Ovechkin has 18 more goals than assists, has taken 436 shots, which gives him a scoring percentage of 14.7. Crosby has played 53 games, has twice as many assists as goals, has taken 173 shots, crediting him with a 13.9 scoring percentage. Their points per game sta tistics are almost identical with Ovechkin at 1.38 W-L-OL 47-26-8 46-25-10 43-32-6 45-28-7 42- 43- 42-31-8 40-28-12 40-29-11 91 2 W-L-OL Pts. GL 53-21-7 113 1 49-21-10 108 2 44- 97 1 45- 98 2 43-29-7 93 3 43-31-7 93 1 41-30-10 92 1 41-31-9 91 1 Sidney Crosby By Ryan P. Gallagher Who will advance and who will start their golf season early? By Krista Pugliano contributing writer kzplos@psu.edu It has been six grueling months, filled with excitement and injuries, but the NHL regular season is coming to end. While some teams already know their destination for next week, whether it is more hockey and seeing the fam ily for the first time since Columbus Day, some are leaving it all out on the line to advance to the NHL playoffs, which start April 9. In the Eastern Conference, the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the Atlantic Division for the first time in 10 years and are currently sit ting in No. 1 in the playoff race in the East. Thanks to the incredible play of the “Steel City Line" of Evgeni Malkin, Petr Sykora and Ryan Malone, the Penguins offense did not suffer, even when the Pens saw All-Star for wards Sidney Crosby, Gary Roberts and Marian Hossa went down to injuries. The Montreal Canadians, who sit at N 0.2, clinched the Northeast Division this past week. On a team with a few All-Stars (Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Markov) and a bunch of overachievers (Chris Higgins, Tomas Plekanec, and Mark Streit), the Canadians have what it takes to make noise in the post season, even though it will be without captain Saku Koivu, who broke his foot on March 28 against the Buffalo Sabres. The Pens can clinch the top spot in the Eastern Conference with a win on Sunday, April 9, against the Philadelphia Flyers or a regulation loss for the Canadians. While the Pens and the Canadians know that they will be playing next week in the and Crosby at 1.36. If you multiply Crosby’s average by the number of games he missed, it puts Crosby one point below Ovechkin. A pretty impressive statistic when you take into account who Sid plays with. Which brings me to a slightly off topic point- the brilliance of Evgeni Malkin. Malkin trails Ovechkin in overall points by a mere four points. An interesting aspect of this sta tistic. which I found amazing, was the fact that Malkin has taken 173 fewer shots than Alex O. My question is, if Ovechkin is taking so many shots, how could you not expect 65 goals from him, being the athlete that he is? When you take 441 shots, I CONTRIBUTED PHOT! 'rosby and Ovechkin have led the youthful dominance that has taken place since the lockout in 2004. pray to God that at least 65 go in. That’s just logic In the 1988-89 season, Mario Lemieux shot the puck 313 times, scoring on 85 of those shots, leav ing him with a scoring percentage of 27.2. That’s impressive. He finished that season with 199 points, and did not record a lower shooting percent age that that of Ovechkin’s, until his very late years in 2000-2001. He only played 24 games that year. The reason I brought that up is for one reason, and it’s not to brag about the Pens. It’s to say this, do not tell me that Ovechkin’s the best player in the league because he has 65 goals. Find valid reasons that make Ovechkin a comparable hockey player to Sidney Crosby. Sixty-Five goals on 436 shots is nothing. If the game of hockey consisted of one-on-one play, Ovechkin may have a chance of beating Crosby, but that is not what the game is about. That is why Sidney Crosby is a better hockey player than Ovechkin. If you do not believe me, I suggest watching some playoff hockey by the Atlantic divi sion champions. Crosby. Malkin. Hossa. Sykora. Gonchar. The intensity is shooting through my head, and I can’t wait. Let’s go Crosby, Let’s go Pens. OPT If you were in the Verizon Center in D.C. at all this past week, there would only be three letters that you could hear. M.V.P. As Alexander Ovechkin scored his 63rd goal, breaking Luc Robataille for most by a left-winger, it was obvious who the hometown favorite is. Ovie, the 22-year-old Russian phenom, is now the league leader in goals (65) and leads some other Russian that plays for the Pens in points (112 as of April 4). There has been much debate this past season over who is the better player, Sidney Crosby or Alexander the Great. While both players are signif icantly ahead of the field in talent, the race for over all supremacy in the NHL has a clear winner. While Sid “the Kid” has won over the hearts of hometown fans, Ovie’s success is more integral to his team’s success than that of Crosby. Ovechkin was bom into a family of successful athletes. His father, Mikhail, was a former Russian soccer player and his mother, Tatyana Ovechkina, is an Olympic-gold winning basketball player. When he was two years old, Alex is noted as grabbing a hockey stick and helmet from a toy store in Russia and refusing to let go. With the Penguins leading the Eastern conference and clinching the Atlantic division, many would choose Crosby because of his aid in the team’s suc cess. But what many people do not see is the “Who’s Who” of the Pittsburgh area, alias, the Pens lineup. Malkin has led the team the entire season. Hop 5 favorite Penguin players Top 5 worst hockey team names s*) Brooks Orpik 5.) Pittsburgh Penguins 4.) Evgeni Malkin By 4.) Washington Capitals By 3.)Sidney Crosby Ryan Gallagher 3.) Vaaeouver Canucks Chris LaFuria 2.) Jaridko Ruutu 2.) Montreal Canadians 1.) Maxime Talbot l.)Ottawa Senators playoffs, it looks like their opponents will not be decided until the final games finish on Sunday. Currently, only five points separate N 0.4 and N 0.9 in the playoff race. While the Ottawa Senators, Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins are safe for now, the Flyers are still keeping up with pack, even though their last two games are nothing to desire (New Jersey Devils and Penguins). The Capitals can move up as far as the No. 3 spot in the East, with the Southeast Title. The Carolina Hurricanes, who currently sit atop on the Southeast Division, are tied with CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The Stanley Cup will be awarded in June Alexander Ovechkin By Chris LaFuria the strength of Pittsburgh’s lines. Ovie's first professional success came in his first game as a pro. Against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ovechkin scored two goals in the Caps' 3-2 win. In Jan. of the next year, he scored a hat trick over All- Star goalie Jean-Sebastian Giguere. The importance of Ovechkin is what makes him important. The acronym M.V.P. stands for "Most Valuable Player." Ovechkin leads the hockey world with 65 goals. The next highest total for a Caps players is Alexander Semin with 25. Hockey fans like scoring. Hockey teams win with scoring. Ovechkin satisfies both needs. Sidney Crosby will probably go on to become the greatest players since “The Great One." He has the talent and situation to be catapulted into the upper echelon of players. However, the only thing that could keep him from doing that is his health. He has missed 28 of the Pens’ last 32 games. Makes Pens fans and bandwagon mates somewhat nerv- If postseason accolades are any indication of a player’s success, Mr. Ovechkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy for the league's Rookie of the Year for the 2005-2006 season. Coincidentally, this was the same season Sid made his premier. In the race for this year's playoffs, who has been relied on more for their team's success? C'roshy. who has become the No. 1 Pittsburgh cheerleader? Or Alexander Ovechkin, league leader in points and moral leader of the entire Washington squad? I believe Ovie is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The Behrend Beacon I the Capitals, hut head-to-head, the Hurricanes have the tiebreaker over the Caps. With only one game left for each team, both against the Florida Panthers, the Caps and the Canes will battle it out for home ice in the first round. While the Eastern Conference is still wide open, the Western Conference is almost all locked up. with six teams clinched for the playoffs. Leading the way in the West is the Detroit Red Wings, who have been a domi nant force throughout the entire year. With their seven Central Division titles and 17 playoffs appearances in a row, the Red Wings are always considered a threat for the Stanley Cup. Nipping at their heals are the San Jose Sharks, who have been the best NHL team since the trade deadline, going 16-0-2. Even with their recent hot streak, the Sharks do not have a shot at the Presidents Trophy, who is awarded to the team with the best record in the regular season. The Red Wings are cur rently five points ahead of the Sharks. The No. 7 and No. 8 spots are the only two available in the West, with four teams gun ning for them. Currently, the Calgary Flames and the Nashville Predators sit in the final spots in the West. The Flames can punch their ticket to the postseason with a win or overtime loss in their final game, while the Predators have their work cut out for them. Only holding the final spot by a point, the Predators have the Vancouver Canucks nip ping at their heals. With the playoffs right around the corner and no clear-cut favorite, any of the 16 teams in the playoffs can walk away with Lord Stanley in June. points and second in Russians. The acquisition of Marian Hossa just adds to
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