{"id":264878,"date":"2025-11-06T05:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T05:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264878\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T05:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T05:09:11","slug":"crosby-ovechkin-rivalry-with-penguins-capitals-remains-great-for-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264878\/","title":{"rendered":"Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry with Penguins, Capitals remains ‘great for hockey’"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY, Pa. — Sidney Crosby<\/a> enjoys stability.<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin<\/a> provides it.<\/p>\n

They were tied together when each No. 1 NHL Draft pick debuted in 2005. Two decades later, nothing has changed.<\/p>\n

Crosby, the 38-year-old captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, against Ovechkin, his 40-year-old counterpart with the Washington Capitals, is one of most decorated individual rivalries in NHL history.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s great,” Crosby said Wednesday. “It was great when we first started playing against each other as far as just the rivalry and bringing the best out of everyone. I think it was great for hockey and still is.”<\/p>\n

The next chapter is Thursday, when the Penguins welcome the Capitals to PPG Paints Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SN) for Crosby and Ovechkin’s 99th meeting in the regular season or Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia won’t define it. Each team could use a win.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, whose 900 goals are the most in NHL history, had two in 12 games this season and was without a point in four straight losses (0-3-1) before reaching the milestone in a 6-1 win against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Washington (7-5-1) is tied with the Philadelphia Flyers for fourth in the Metropolitan Division after winning it last season at 51-22-9.<\/p>\n

“Even if he doesn’t have the start he wants, it’s still probably their most dangerous guy out there,” Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang<\/a> said. “That shot, you can’t sleep on it. If you give him too much room, he’s going to make you pay.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY, Pa. — Sidney Crosby enjoys stability. Alex Ovechkin provides it. They were tied together when each No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-264878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}