Incredibly, Crosby And Ovechkin Have Drawn Even

Via the always-excellent Japers’ Rink, here’s a fun hock fact for you:

That’s really cool! What are the damn odds.

It’s perhaps impossible, upon seeing the goal/assist breakdown, to not mentally recapitulate the history of the Ovechkin vs. Crosby argument. I absolutely did so, despite never having bought into the legitimacy of the debate in the first place. I’m not proud of it, but here we are:

Goals are more valuable than assists!But Crosby makes his teammates better!Crosby’s teammates were already better than Ovechkin’s!Crosby has as many points in fewer games!Ovechkin’s durability matters!Crosby actually plays defense!Ovechkin never gets enough credit for his two-way play!Crosby has way more playoff points!Defending champssssss!Three Cupssssssss!

Ad infinitum. Even otherwise reasonable people can get caught up in this:

And all of this is before the Jumbo Joe Hive gets involved.

Thankfully, the noise on the “who’s better” debate has tailed off in recent years, as most folks have stopped trying to quantify the value of the league’s two best players and instead seem to have become more able to just appreciate them for what they are and accept that they’re two different types of players, both incredible in their own ways. Still, and maybe this is only nostalgia, it’s at least a little fun to rehash the argument, if only because it gives a chance to reminisce about why your guy is so good.

Anyway, they both rule.