Watch Your Back, A.O.
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GENO IS BETTER THAN A.O.
I'll open that thought up to discussion, but in my mind, the best player in the 2004 draft was taken SECOND overall.
Now, I'm not doubting A.O.'s brilliance. Look at those NHL stats, and you'll see that his goal total to this point in the season is surreal. Kovalchuk can light the lamp, but I don't see him catching Ovechkin.
The same cannot be said for the overall points race. Out of nowhere, Geno has skyrocketed to within one point of A.O.'s league-leading total of 78. It looks like the reigning Rookie of the Year is going to notch his first 100-point season, and possibly take home the Art Ross (if not more) Troph(ies).
So how do you judge talent? Is A.O better because he scores more goals? Or is Geno's stat line better because its more well rounded?
You can have the flashy goals whenever you want, I'll take the guy who scores AND sets up his teammates with an increased regularity.
Geno is better than A.O. The Penguins are better than the Capitals because of it. And Sid's on the road back. Dirty.
End of story.
2 comments:
While I agree that the Pens are better than the Caps, I'm not ready to say that Malkin is better than Ovechkin. A.O. has had a much weaker supporting cast in his time with the Caps and therefore has been forced and probably instructed by the coaches to shoot often. Even this season with better talent (Backstrom, Kozlov and Nylander before he got hurt), A.O. leads the team with a +10. Nylander is a -19 and Semin is a -11.
If Crosby didn't get hurt and Malkin did not have the amazing last few months, I don't think we'd be having this discussion.
If you're talking about marketability, Ovechkin does interviews in English; Malkin doesn't even talk in the cheesy A&L BMW commercial.
Supporting cast taking into account, I still think Geno...right now...can contend with or even boast a better game than A.O. Prior to this recent Crosby injury, the Penguins were something like 1-4 lifetime without him. I think everyone would've been just fine with hanging around .500 til he came back.
Instead, a guy with a year and a half NHL experience has absolutely taken the team on his back and brought them to the top of the Atlantic. And now he's breathing down Ovechkin in the points race. And it hasn't been with like 10-12 points in the 14 games that Sid has missed. Geno is pushing 1.5-2 points a game in that span.
A.O. has more experience and the system he's in allows him to shoot A LOT, but Geno has been lights out with scoring AND getting his teammates the puck.
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