Mike Wise is smitten. He's seen the future, and Sidney Crosby is it.
Crosby, he argues, is better than Ovechkin, and yesterday's game, he insists, proves it.
Wise says that many people were trying too make much of this set of games. He frames his column as a battle between pro-Canadian xenophobes (Why are Don Cherry's ears burning?) who view Ovie as "a look-at-me Russian showboat in bright red" and those non-traditionalists who get all hopped up every time Ovie smiles that goofy grin and rams into the boards when he undresses another goalie.
He says that we shouldn't read too much into the game. Ovie and Sid aren't archetypes; they're just puck players.
Yet, Wise does just that, citing Crosby's one-game performance as proof that Sid's the better player. He says of Crosby, "But having watched him up close for seven games, seeing his economy of movement outside the crease, his feistiness in the corners and his uncanny knack for delivering the puck perfectly for an on-rushing teammate, he gets the nod as a more important player in a seminal game at this juncture of his career."
In fairness, the last few words of that sentence have so many qualifications that fans and haters of Crosby can read whatever they want into it.
He says of Ovie, "The Great Eight is awesome and the most original, organic and exciting player in the game. But in 21 riveting playoff games, his team is 1-2 in Game 7s, and last night the Capitals were at least a year away from their first Cup finals in the Ovechkin era. "
Damn you Ovechkin for injuring Green and Semin! And for letting in a few of those softies that got by Varlamov. If Ovie were a better player, maybe he'd have traded for Chris Pronger at the deadline, too.
Whether you think that Ovechkin or Crosby is the better player -- and we know where most Caps fans stand -- neither yesterday's game nor the entire series proved anything conclusively.
But when the butterflies of love tingle in your tummy, as Mike Wise is demonstrating, you'll come to some pretty silly conclusions.
Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. He still thinks that Steve Larmer is better.
