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After 10 years of Crosby vs. Ovechkin, you ready for McDavid vs. Eichel?

Sid and Connor
Sid and Connor

So who ya got?

In this corner is Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, Canadian hockey wunderkind and anointed top prospect in the 2015 NHL Draft, considered arguably the best young player to enter the League in a decade and maybe beyond. He’s polished and practiced, his image cultivated and controlled.

In this corner is Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres, American hockey prodigy and consensus second-best prospect in the 2015 NHL Draft, considered a franchise player and someone who would have gone first overall in many other recent drafts. He’s a little rougher around the edges, and you can sense there’s a rascal lurking under that measured rookie veneer.

As hockey fans, we'd obviously like them both to excel, to maximize their potential, to give this League two more must-see players among the dozen or so that currently exist. We want them to revive their moribund franchises, to challenge for trophies. And since they’re inexorably linked by their draft year, we want them to push each other, feeding our societal need for constant comparison.

It’s been a while since we had this.

Ten years, to be exact.

NHL--Sidney Crosby vs Alex Ovechkin
NHL--Sidney Crosby vs Alex Ovechkin

Before Alex Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby was thrust down our collective throats with all the subtly of a xenomorph’s ovipositor, it was a rookie rivalry like the NHL had rarely seen before.

You don’t have to strain your ears to hear the echoes of Crosby vs. Ovechkin in McDavid vs. Eichel: a rivalry involving a player for whom they rewrote the rules of the NHL Draft lottery; the Canadian vs. the “other”; practiced persona vs. a less mannered foe (although Eichel’s not the rock star Ovechkin was and is); “Hockey Jesus,” with the Calder Trophy already being measured for his name, and the player attempting to take the throne.

That’s how it played out in 2005, when Crosby and Ovechkin were both rookies. (Although please recall they didn’t share a draft; Ovechkin went to the Washington Capitals in 2004, while Crosby was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first post-lockout draft.)

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Here’s how it also played out: Ovechkin was immediately placed in the role of underdog party crasher by virtue of how the NHL treated Sid The Kid straight out of the gate.

From Yahoo Sports’ Eric Adelson, writing for ESPN The Magazine:

Because of the work stoppage, the players debuted on the same night: Oct. 5, 2005. Ovechkin scored his first NHL goal less than half an hour into his first game, then scored another to lead the Caps to an opening night win. The response from the NHL? An audio file announcing Sidney Crosby's first pro point -- a power play assist -- in a lopsided Pens loss. Um, hello? Why did a routine assist get a press release for a No. 1 pick while two goals earned nothing for another No. 1? After the Caps complained, the NHL sent out a release on Ovechkin.

But by then the league had tipped its hand. Ovechkin scored six more goals and five assists in October. But Rookie of the Month went to No. 87, who scored two goals to go with 12 assists. Speaking later at the National Press Club in Washington, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the decision to honor Crosby was handled by the league's PR crew. That was all Caps fans needed to hear.

Ovechkin would go on to win the Calder Trophy that season, because there was no denying his freshman campaign was more impressive than Crosby’s: He led all rookies in scoring with 106 points (52 goals, 54 assists) and became the second rookie in history to tally 50 goals and 100 points in a season after Winnipeg's Teemu Selanne in 1992-93. He received 124 first-place votes to four votes for Crosby.

Since then … well, Ovechkin’s collected more and more trophies, while Crosby has a Stanley Cup, two conference titles and two Olympic gold medals. They remain the two biggest hockey stars on the planet, and not coincidentally because their rivalry was such a game-changer for the NHL after the 2005 lockout.

SUNRISE, FL - JUNE 26: Jack Eichel poses on stage after being selected second overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center on June 26, 2015 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
SUNRISE, FL - JUNE 26: Jack Eichel poses on stage after being selected second overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center on June 26, 2015 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The difference for McDavid and Eichel, of course, is geography.

This isn’t a rivalry encased in a more historic rivalry, like the Capitals and Penguins. The Sabres and Oilers are only going to meet in the postseason for the Stanley Cup. McDavid and Eichel will only faceoff in an outdoor game if the NHL ignores all of its previous standards for invitation and makes it about two players.

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McDavid and Eichel becomes more about statistic achievement at first, then the Calder Trophy, then team success. They’ll battle internationally, eventually – they’ll be teammates at next year’s World Cup of Hockey. But outside of two games every regular season, the rivalry will be kept alive by reporters’ questions and fans battle lines.

So as Eichel debuts on Thursday night at home against the Buffalo Sabres, and Connor McDavid debuts against the St. Louis Blues … who ya got?

I’ll take Eichel, of course, because I’m an American fanboi. I imagine nationality will be the determining factor for many, right there with how one feels about the Oilers and/or Sabres.

But as someone who remembers the pre-saturation Crosby vs. Ovechkin rivalry fondly, the next year is going to be amazing.

Draw your battle lines. Pick your favorites. And may the best rookie win.

(And watch it end up being Dylan Larkin or Max Domi, ruining our fun …)

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