Penguins-Capitals inescapably about legacy for Crosby, Ovechkin

Pillars in the post-lockout era, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin form the prism through which we view the Pittsburgh Penguins-Washington Capitals rivalry.

Transcendent talents who at their cores offer dramatic juxtaposition, Crosby - the squeaky clean archetypal force - and Ovechkin - the previously brash, incomparable pure sniper - have, with a friction only partially engineered, helped lift the NHL to its comparatively healthy standing within the sports landscape.

For this reason, when we revisit this upcoming clash years down the road, we will unfairly gloss over Washington's near-flawless roster reconstruction and Pittsburgh's in-season awakening. Instead, the focus in this foremost second-round series will be on the NHL's long-standing chief protagonists, whose legacies may change forever over the course of the next few weeks.

This is why it means so much:

Alex

The most decorated individual in the sport, Ovechkin has won three MVPs, six Rocket Richards, a scoring title, and the Calder, and has been named to the NHL's first or second team in nine of his 10 completed seasons. He's without equal as it pertains to scoring goals; the greatest of a generation, and perhaps ever.

This mastery has helped the Capitals reach new heights. He's been on two Presidents' Trophy winners, five 100-point iterations, and made the playoffs for the eighth time in 11 years this spring. But for the 564 goals scored over the course of his career, Washington's six-game dispatching of the Flyers in Round 1 was just the fifth time he's had to prepare condolences when approaching a handshake line.

Ovechkin's championship shortfalls extend to country. In fact, he might consider his greatest on-ice tragedies as those that have come while wearing the double-headed eagle on his chest. He hasn't medaled in three Olympics for Russia, failures typified by a mortifying quarterfinal loss in Sochi.

Now, it's patently absurd to suggest this is on Ovechkin. Not even slightly. He's the active leader in goals per game in the playoffs, and a player who's production from the regular season tails off only slightly, like most. But for Ovechkin, who could one day leave the game with more goals than anyone save for Wayne, winning the Stanley Cup is a requisite to make certain that he's lionized in the same vein as legends before him.

This stands to be his greatest chance to cement that legacy.

Sid

Crosby, too, is decorated as an individual, but at the same time is precisely Ovechkin's opposite, having earned his lasting plaudits at the team level. The Triple Gold Club member won the Cup in his senior season in the NHL, and a little more than eight months before scoring the Golden Goal - a moment that fits in the same class as the greatest scored in Canada's hockey-mad history. It took five seasons for Crosby to have accomplished it all. But now, more than a decade into his career, it doesn't feel as though he's fulfilled that boundless potential he brought to this league.

In recent springs, we've seen indignation replace celebration; more protests than parades. We've seen opponents, ones worthy and others not, get the better of the best in the world. We haven't seen the kid who rescued a franchise, the kid who ushered in the new NHL, the kid who still carries the torch. That was until recently.

Pittsburgh played some of the best hockey of Crosby's tenure over the final four months of the regular season, and appear more prepared than ever to win the championship that wouldn't just pad its captain's legacy, but quell whispers of what could have been.

But perhaps above all, this team, this run, poses an immensely therapeutic opportunity for Sid, as it would be borne through hardship. He'd have a championship moment to slot in front of those back-to-back concussions, his lost season, his broken jaw, the mumps, the five straight seasons losing to an inferior opponent, the rumor mill that only churns when things aren't going well, the moronic notion he's finished.

Another coronation for the kid means surrounding the plight neither he, or us, could have ever forecast with silver bookends. But he must overcome his greatest adversary again first.

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