Sports Radio Interviews

Sidney Crosby Versus Alex Ovechkin

A dream matchup.  That’s what this second round playoff series is for the NHL – Alex Ovechkin versus Sidney Crosby.  Arguably the two best players in the game, two contrasting styles, from two different parts of the world.  The NHL has always marketed their game as more of a team sport and never really focused solely on the players – I personally don’t think the league has done a good enough job marketing their top superstars, especially when we’re talking about such a character in Ovechkin.  Here we are in the NHL playoffs with the top players playing head-to-head and these two are not disappointing.  In game two, they both potted hat tricks as the Capitals took a 2-0 series lead.  Sidney Crosby was on ESPN Radio Pittsburgh discussing how much he pays attention to the mano-a-mano rivalry, what will change tonight, and what he was speaking to the referee about after Ovie scored his third goal in game two.

Do you keep track of what’s happening between you and Ovechkin?

“No, not really.  When it comes down to it, they got a big goal there on the powerplay when it counted and that’s the difference.  I don’t see anything else but that…”

On what he was speaking about with the referee after Ovechkin’s third goal:

“People kept throwing hats, I just asked him to make an announcement, to ask them to stop.  The first wave came and I think they were all pretty much picked up and more started coming, so for us we just wanted to make sure we kept kinda moving, kept the game going, while we’re trying to get back in to it.  I wasn’t complaining about anything.”

What’s gonna be different when you head home for game three?

“I don’t think a whole lot’s gonna change – from our point of view we wanna make sure we fix a few things but we don’t wanna change our game a whole lot.  That’s the way we wanna play as far as forechecking, being physical, powerplay needs to get a little sharper, but there’s not a lot of difference between the two teams right now.  It’s one play here and there, it’s a one goal game both games, there’s just not a lot of room for error.”

Listen to Sidney Crosby on ESPN Radio Pittsburgh (44:45 into podcast)

Tags: Alex Ovechkin, hockey, NHL, NHL Playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Washington Capitals