With Alex Ovechkin retirement possible, Sidney Crosby honors an enduring 20-year bond

AtlanticBruinsCanadiensLightningMaple LeafsPanthersRed WingsSabresSenatorsMetropolitanBlue JacketsCapitalsDevilsFlyersHurricanesIslandersPenguinsRangersCentralAvalancheBlackhawksBluesJetsMammothPredatorsStarsWildPacificCanucksDucksFlamesGolden KnightsKingsKrakenOilersSharksScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksPlayoff projectionsNHL Draft rankingRed Light NewsletterNHL Regular Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin could face off for the final two times this weekend. Joe Sargent / Getty Images Share full article{"endpoint":"https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql","summariesData":[{"title":"Good for the sport","description":"The Sidney Crosby-Alex Ovechkin rivalry has captivated hockey fans for 20 years, bringing many back to the sport after the 2005 lockout. Despite being vastly different characters — Crosby, the understated Canadian, and Ovechkin, the charismatic Russian — and constantly drawing comparisons to each other, the two have formed a friendship over the years. The Penguins and Capitals play twice this weekend. The schedule is no coincidence. If this is the end for Ovehckin, it's only fitting that a couple of games against Crosby cap his career. \"I feel very fortunate that I've gotten to be in the same division against the greatest goal scorer of all time,\" Crosby said. \"It's been an honor.\" CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Like it or lump it, Sidney Crosby has a soft spot for Alex Ovechkin. When asked about Ovechkin’s flamboyant goal celebrations in 2009, Crosby famously quipped about his biggest rival: “Like it or lump it, that’s what he does. Some people like it, some people don’t. Personally, I don’t like it.” Seventeen years later, with Ovechkin’s hockey future uncertain, Crosby sounds like he wouldn’t mind seeing an over-the-top Ovechkin celebration for old time’s sake, so long as it doesn’t come at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ expense. The two rivals, who have been compared to each other since childhood, have seen their formerly chilly relationship thaw significantly in recent years. The Penguins and Capitals play twice this weekend, in Pittsburgh on Saturday and in Washington on Saturday. The schedule is no coincidence. If this is the end for Ovehckin — he said Wednesday that he’ll wait until after the season to make a retirement decision — it’s only fitting that a couple of games against Crosby cap his career. The Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry has captivated hockey fans for 20 years, bringing so many back to the sport after the 2005 NHL lockout. Crosby sat down with The Athletic this week to share his thoughts on the uncertainty hovering over Ovechkin’s future. “It’s been on my mind quite a bit,” Crosby said. “I’ve been thinking about him a lot, because I know it’s something that has got to be on his mind constantly right now. When you get to a certain age, it’s the way it is. Every player is going to have to deal with it at some point.” Crosby’s Penguins are almost guaranteed a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin April 18. Ovechkin’s Capitals, a surprise playoff team last season, have disappointed in 2025-26 and are a long shot for the postseason. Ticket prices for Sunday’s game at Capital One Arena have skyrocketed, just in case this is the end. Like everyone else, Crosby is simply waiting to hear a decision from Ovechkin, who turns 41 in September. “He’s accomplished so much and has had an amazing career,” Crosby said. “And I know that he still has an incredible passion for that game. That’s obvious. It’s definitely crossed my mind a lot lately, wondering what he’s going to do, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.” Larry Bird once said that he felt lost in the NBA after Magic Johnson’s 1991 retirement. With his greatest rival gone from the league, there was no one else to measure himself against and no relevant box scores to track. Crosby said he will know that feeling if indeed Ovechkin departs the NHL. “Oh man,” he said. “Yeah, it would be so weird if he’s not around anymore. It would be weird, especially because we’ve (almost) always been in the same division. We see each other so often. We came into the league together. So, really, it’s all we’ve ever known. There have been changes. You play with a lot of different guys over the course of 20 years. But for me, seeing him a few times a year, and seeing him in the playoffs, has always been a constant.” Crosby’s Penguins and Ovechkin’s Capitals have met four times in the postseason, with all four ranking among the most memorable series of this century. The Penguins won three of the four, with the Capitals finally conquering their nemesis in 2018. On all four occasions, the series-winning team also won the Stanley Cup that spring. When Crosby looks back at his career, he said, the Penguins-Capitals war will probably be the first thing to pop into his mind. “Those were incredible series,” the Penguins captain said. “We had to go through them to get there. The way that both teams played in the regular season was just getting into position to play each other in the playoffs. We basically built our teams with the other team in mind, knowing that the other one would probably be there. And the way those series went, the Game 7s. There are a ton of memories from those games, those series. There will be a ton of memories for me in terms of playing against Ovi over the years, but those series will stick out above everything else. I’ll think about those forever.” Ovechkin, of course, won’t play forever. Neither will Crosby, who turns 39 in August. And through all of the years of intense competition and high stakes, Crosby’s admiration for Ovechkin has only grown. Crosby, a pass-first player, has always been the stylistic polar opposite of the shoot-first Ovechkin. When someone in the Penguins’ locker room once made a joke about Ovechkin’s “Cy Young” stat line, Crosby snapped back at Ovechkin’s tendency to produce far more goals than assists. “If I could shoot the puck like him,” Crosby said with a grin in 2019, “I’d probably shoot all the time, too.” In 2009, Crosby and Ovechkin posted matching hat tricks in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Ovechkin’s Capitals won that battle, but Crosby’s Penguins won the war in seven games. However, Ovechkin’s performance in that series — scoring eight goals while being a physical menace throughout — has always remained in Crosby’s mind. “People talk about (Ovechkin’s) shot, and yeah, it’s great,” Crosby said. “But the thing about him back then was, he’d have six or seven huge hits during the course of a game, even though he was playing all of those minutes. That’s so hard to do. Just an incredible hockey player.” Crosby is preparing for the playoffs for the first time since 2022, and his team’s dream season has his full attention. Still, he’ll allow some time for some nostalgia this weekend. Crosby rarely looks back, and even more rarely is he introspective when discussing his career. He’s wired to look ahead, to win the next game. For Ovechkin, though, he lowered his guard. “If this is it for him, if that’s the way it works out, I think it’s pretty cool that the schedule worked out the way it did,” Crosby said. Few players — and few rivalries — live up to the hype like Crosby and Ovechkin. But the two icons have, incredibly, surpassed their lofty expectations and played some of their greatest hockey against each other. They carried the NHL at a time when the league badly needed it. Despite being vastly different characters — Crosby the understated Canadian, Ovechkin the charismatic Russian — and constantly drawing comparisons to each other, they’ve formed a friendship in recent years. At the end of a 2019 game in Pittsburgh, Ovechkin thought Crosby was approaching him to begin an altercation. Instead, Crosby came over to congratulate Ovechkin on reaching the 1,200th-point milestone. In 2023, Crosby and Ovechkin skated with Ovechkin’s young son, Sergei, at the NHL All-Star Game Skills competition. Once upon a time, Crosby and Ovechkin were children dominating a league of men. Now, as one of them may have reached the end, Crosby has nothing but gratitude for all of it. “I feel very fortunate that I’ve gotten to be in the same division against the greatest goal scorer of all time,” Crosby said. “It’s been an honor.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Josh Yohe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. Josh joined The Athletic in 2017 after covering the Penguins for a decade, first for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and then for DKPittsburghSports.com. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshYohe_PGH