B/R NHL Staff Roundtable: Favorite Player Rivalries

Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have been tied together ever since they made their NHL debuts on Oct. 5, 2005.

The pair have the same amount of points—1423, entering Tuesday—and have faced each other in numerous playoff battles throughout the years. Who can forget the dueling hat tricks both players had on May 4, 2009, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals?

While Crosby has Ovi beat in terms of Stanley Cups won—three to one—the Capitals captain tops the Pens captain with Hart Memorial Trophy wins as the league's MVP with three to Crosby's two. With the pair set to face off again on Wednesday Night Hockey this week, the B/R NHL Staff got together to reminisce about their favorite player rivalries.

What's your favorite player rivalry, hockey fans? Share your thoughts in the comments section of the app!

A good individual hockey rivalry usually has the makeup of two extremely talented players trying to match each other. Gretzky vs. Lemieux, Brodeur vs. Roy, and Yzerman vs. Sakic are among the most memorable in this regard.

But, for the most part, the comparisons of their talent are largely evaluated in the abstract rather than as a direct conflict. There were moments when they faced off against each other, and perhaps even in memorable playoff moments, but one's success didn't necessarily come from the other's failure on any given play.

This is why the best player rivalry is Alexander Ovechkin vs. Henrik Lundqvist. Sure, on a team level there is a healthy history between the two. Lundqvist faced the Capitals 42 times in the regular season, winning 22 of them.

The two faced off 33 times over the course of the five career playoff series; neither faced off against another team or player more times in their playoff careers. The Capitals won the first two, followed by three-straight Rangers series wins, and four of those five series went to seven games.

But what really defines the relationship is that it's the only notable rivalry that directly pitted one against the other. Ovechkin, an unstoppable force, was trying to penetrate an immovable wall, Lundqvist.

Every goal The Great Eight scored came at the expense of Lundqvist, and every stop by King Henrik was a blown opportunity for Ovi. It was a sum-zero rivalry, where one's success inherently demanded the other's failure.

Ovechkin scored some highlight-reel goals against Hank, while Lundqvist made his share of robberies. And while fans love a rivalry filled to the brim with animosity, these two future Hall of Famers battled each other with immense respect for the other's brilliance.

The top goal scorer and best netminder of a generation had several memorable moments against each other in heart-pounding playoff games, each having their own moments of success against the other.

- Adam Herman

Sidney Crosby's rivalry with Alex Ovechkin will long be remembered as one of the greatest in NHL history. However, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain also dueled with Claude Giroux during the latter's nearly 15 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Keystone State clubs had a long, natural rivalry before Crosby and Giroux came along in the late 2000s. As the top centers of their respective clubs, they faced off regularly against each other, generating an intensity that boiled over during Game 3 of their first-round series in the 2012 playoffs.

When the dust settled, Crosby and Giroux wound up penalized for fighting. Following the game, the Penguins captain said, "I don't like any guy on their team."

The Flyers center, however, had the last laugh in the deciding Game 6, flattening his rival with an early hit and scoring a goal to lead his teammates in eliminating the Penguins.

Later that summer, Giroux underwent wrist surgery to repair fractures he claimed were inflicted on him by Crosby during their series. The Penguins captain subsequently said he wasn't trying to hurt the Flyers center but stated he wasn't sorry if he did.

The rivalry between Crosby and Giroux would occasionally flare in the following years before the latter's departure from Philadelphia before last season's trade deadline.

While it never again burned as white-hot as it did during their 2012 playoff series, it fueled anticipation among fans that maintained the intensity of the long-running feud between those two clubs.

- Lyle Richardson

Whether it was the regular season or during the playoffs, the Battle of Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton was war on ice. Both teams were supremely talented, both teams played with ferocity, and both teams hated each other.

That sentiment was best embodied in the rivalry between Oilers star Mark Messier and Flames center Joel Otto. Every battle in the corner, every faceoff and each tussle along the boards was a knockdown, drag-out fight.

Messier was an incredible scorer and a physically terrifying player. While Otto wasn't a big-time scorer, he was an outstanding defender, terrific on faceoffs and an ultra-physical skater.

While Joe Nieuwendyk tried to wrangle Wayne Gretzky, it was Messier and Otto who led the way in dealing the crucial blows and setting the tone during every game.

The playoffs are where rivalries are hardened, and Edmonton and Calgary faced each other five times between 1983 and 1991. It was 1986 when Messier and Otto would meet in the postseason for the first time, though.

Even though Edmonton usually came out on top throughout the '80s, Otto's Flames interrupted what was an incredible run of Oilers Cup victories in 1986 when they took out their rivals in Edmonton in Game 7 to advance to the Campbell Conference Final. The Flames went on to win their first and only Stanley Cup that year.

Their rivalry didn't end when each player left Calgary and Edmonton. When Otto played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Messier was captain of the New York Rangers during the 1995-1996 season, they dropped the gloves against each other one more time while in the middle of another wicked rivalry.

I know they don't make 'em like they used to, but the battles Messier and Otto had in the '80s and '90s really don't happen anymore.

- Joe Yerdon

If you've been paying any real attention, you already know: When it comes to allegiances on the B/R hockey staff, I will rail the longest and loudest when discussing the merits of the Edmonton Oilers.

I was an elementary school-aged fan in the WHA days, transitioned when they reached the NHL in 1979 and happily rode the wave through five banners hung across a seven-year stretch that ended in 1990. So it's probably no surprise that my favorite rivalry looks back on the glory days.

I was in eighth grade when the Oilers met the New York Islanders in the 1983 Stanley Cup Final, and I told everyone within middle-school earshot that Wayne Gretzky and Co. were the greatest things since sliced bread—regardless of what the Islanders had done over the three previous postseasons.

And then Billy Smith showed up.

The best money goalie of my era not only made every save he had to make in the series, but he also managed to get deep into the head of the Great One. Smith used his mouth, stick and anything else within reach to leave the league MVP muttering to the rafters and chirping to the officials in a way the likes of Reggie Lemelin and Richard Brodeur never had.

It was over in four games.

Gretzky was held to a measly four assists after scoring 12 goals in the first three rounds.

I'd be lying if I didn't concede a small part of me feared it would happen again when the teams got back to the title round in 1984. After all, Smith was still Smith. The champs were still the champs. And our beating the same Campbell Conference punching bags along the way didn't change that.

But the concern didn't last long.

Though No. 99 was both goalless and pointless through the rematch's first two games, he definitively cracked the code in Games 3-5, producing four goals and seven points as the Oilers erupted, and, satisfyingly, chased the impenetrable Smith to the bench after just one period in the finale.

And though the head-to-head Cup count was one apiece, the fact that ol' Billy couldn't be bothered to come out for the handshake line after the Game 5 clincher was proof that Gretz had gotten to him, too.

Thirty-eight years later, it still makes me smile.

- Lyle Fitzsimmons

I have so many snarky thoughts about this. Matthew Tkachuk vs. your goalie, Brad Marchand vs. the world, and Sean Avery vs. Martin Brodeur. I'll let the words speak for themselves in that one.

But if we're being serious, I have to go with Joe Sakic vs. Steve Yzerman. If you haven't already watched the E:60 documentary about the Red Wings vs. Avalanche, you need to. So many people, including goalies, fought as a result of the Sakic and Yzerman rivalry, and none of them were Sakic or Yzerman.

I just feel like this rivalry was such a liaison between the old and the new NHL. Both the Avalanche's Sakic (1.19 points per game) and the Red Wings' Yzerman (1.16 points per game) were legends in their own right, and they actually respect each other. They were very similar players, and both are NHL executives now for a very good reason.

Both spent their entire careers with one franchise, and even though Yzerman had a stint with the successful Lightning as an executive, he's back in Detroit. Both were captains, both won multiple Stanley Cups, and both scored more than 600 goals.

I might give the ultimate nod to Yzerman for winning three Cups to Sakic's two, but I'll count the latter in with his Hart nod and the Avalanche's latest Cup considering all the savvy moves he made as GM.

They both wore number 19, which is sort of funny. But I really feel like they paved the way for Ovechkin and Crosby, and I have so much respect for all four of these legends.

- Sara Civian