Sidney Crosby's arrival to the NHL back in 2005-06 came with the tag of being "The Next One." Five seasons and one lockout after Wayne Gretzky retired, it is hard to remember just how badly the NHL needed a "Next One," but Crosby's arrival came at a time of real desperation.
Emerging from the 2004-05 lockout, the NHL appeared doomed to be mired in self-inflicted obscurity. However, some key rule changes and the perfectly timed arrival of Crosby and Alex Ovechkin saved the league from itself.
Fast forward 11 years. The NHL still has Crosby and Ovechkin and they're still among the best players in the league. They remain the most recognizable faces, the most marketable names and the rare players who transcend hockey into the mainstream sports consciousness. They're going to have more company in that department soon, however.
Connor McDavid is the next "Next One. On Tuesday night, we got the long-awaited head-to-head matchup with the player he will succeed in that role for the first time.
It was a fascinating contest between the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and the rising-from-the-ashes Edmonton Oilers in a great display of speed, skill and goals. Crosby and the Pens earned the 4-3 win, but not without McDavid making an impact on the game and furthering the narrative that the Oilers are turning things around in a hurry while riding on his shoulders.
What made the game so intriguing to me is that when Crosby arrived, there wasn't really a a comparable matchup for Crosby at the time. With Gretzky gone, the NHL was still looking for its face. Meanwhile, the most recognizable name in the league was playing on the same team as Mario Lemieux was going through his final season in the NHL. There really wasn't anyone that Crosby had to wrest the torch away from.
The only player that came close was his fellow rookie, which is why the Crosby vs. Ovechkin "rivalry" has gripped us so. It's also why their impact was even greater than either one would have been able to accomplish on their own.
While Crosby and Ovechkin continue to lead the league in so many ways, time will eventually catch up them. When they do pass the torch, they are going to leave the league in much better shape than they entered it in. They also set the bar higher for how much individual players can achieve and how young they can be when they do it.
McDavid in particular is going to have a hard time matching the impact of those players for a number of reasons. Perhaps not the least of those reasons is that the NHL does not really need to be saved right now. It can always be improved and some may perceive it has quite a long ways to go now, but it is going to be hard to match just how dire the situation was in the mid-2000s. Can I even mention the Outdoor Life Network without you shuddering? I'm shuddering right now.
McDavid is also going to have some help, though. There is going to be Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Jack Eichel and the litany of young stars that have taken the league by storm over the last two-plus seasons, as well as those we don't even know about yet, to take the game to new heights.
But as the next wave continues to overtake the NHL, we shouldn't rush to declare Crosby or Ovechkin's reign over. We very well could be entering a new golden age for the NHL, where the league has multiple stars elevating it with their performances on the ice and eventually their exposure off of it.
As scoring increases, the game gets faster, the players become more creative and if -- big if -- those things outpace coaches' ability to tamp it down, the game is going to be better, more entertaining and more enticing to a wider audience. These are the players that are going to drive that forward.
There may never be a player as impactful as Gretzky was ever again, but Crosby and Ovechkin and now the next wave of future superstars are ensuring that there isn't as long a gap between those transcendent talents who make the game better just by being in it. The game appears to be in the best possible hands right now, as the established stars and budding ones continue raising our expectations and excitement level with truly awe-inspiring performances on the ice.
