Sydney Crosby - Very Good but Definitely Not A Great Player

This guy gets far too much publicity and far too many accolades as both it and they pertain to his quality status in the NHL. I cannot argue that Crosby is a very good hockey player and I'm sure everyone will agree. However he is definitely not a great hockey player and by that definition, Crosby is not in the same category as Lemieux and Gretzky who were both great NHL players.

I group Crosby in the same circle which encompasses the likes of Malkin, Toews, Kane, Giroux, Tavares, Stamkos, Ovechkin and Benn. These players are very good but definitely not great as some people and certain members of the media tend to label them. In fact there are a couple in that group above who are better players than Sydney Crosby. Jonathan Toews for one is definitely a better all-around hockey player than Crosby.

Crosby's true NHL calibre status displayed its' true colors in this year's postseason as he did literally nothing for his club in six games against Washington in their recent series. I don't ever recall either Gretzky or Lemieux being non-existent or a non-factor in their teams postseason history. In any case if the Penguins two very good hockey players, Malkin and Crosby, don't begin to appear on the score-sheet beginning Monday night, their team will be non-existent in the remainder of this year's NHL postseason. 

You do realize it is no coincidence the the guys you mentioned as great played in the past when the NHL had an instigator rule and star players did not take anywhere near the physical abuse that todays players do. In Gretzky's case and a few others they almost literally were never even checked hard. Could you imagine a player skating by Gretzky and driving his elbow through his skull back in the day as was the case with Steckel on Crosby in that outdoor game? Or other malicious hits with intent to injure that he or other stars of our day take. In case you have not heard yet here is why Girouz and Ghostisbehere were so take during their series against the Capitals. This copy and paste from the Flyers today..."Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere are both scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday, May 17th to have their right hips repaired as well as bilateral lower abdominal tears repaired."  

With that said Crosby is overhyped and so is Ovechkin but that is their job, to sell the game so they beat dead wood over and over again until everyone or almost everyone believes it whether it is true or not.

Toews is a much a better player than Crosby but how many more can you name?

Look at Benn against St. Louis, their defense made him look mediocre.

Ovechkin is a regular at this, bottom feeding and scoring tons of goals in the regular season, but gets shut down in the playoffs time after time.

Good defensive teams focus on shutting down stars in the playoffs, the special ones are those who are still able to find a way.  That's why you can also make a case for Kane & Kopitar being better players than Crosby.

Its all relative, Crosby is just like the rest of these so called "stars", you cant blame him for not being better than 3 other players in the league. I do agree that he is overrated though...

Ok, don't pretend for one second that offensively Crosby is even close to Kane...no matter how you look at it, whether ist stats or watching them play, Kane with the puck on his stick in your end is a heart attack. Its not the same feeling when Crosby has the puck...

If you want to talk about complete players, Toews is clearly a better player than Crosby in that regard. Wins more faceoffs, key component of his teams PK, defensively better and always assigned to the best forward of other team. Bergeron and Kopitar are better all around hockey players too.

Sid is just overhyped....always has been.  

EVERY non-Penguins fan would LOVE to have Sidney Crosby on their team OR the Capitals Alex Ovechkin for that matter

What a fuc ktard.

lol Crosby became a frank selke candidate? Never been a good defensive forward, if anything it was a weakness in his game and has only improved in recent seasons, still a long way to go to be considered the kind of player that does "everything" for his team (with all due respect faceoff).

I think Pinball and PB are both correct. Crosby is not cream of the crop anymore but to PBs point, he used to be until those injuries....offensively he used to be on another level than just about anyone else in the league.

Easily top 10 in the league still, and top 5 is understandable as well but I dont see him as the best player in the league by any means. Not even close and the media loves portraying him in that role, even with the awful first half he had this season and his struggles against premium teams in the playoffs in recent years, which is the most important factor for me. 

By definition anybody in the Hockey Hall of Fame is a great player and Crosby is a lock to be in the Hall.

was was great now good 

All I can say is 

He may lack personality and make u fall asleep during his interviews, but he still has the numbers to prove he is great, although he was much more dangerous earlier in his career than he is now

Toes looked pretty sh*t in the 1st round against St. Louis...and it helps your credibility when your criticizing someone to spell his name right.

I can't believe I am reading this. So what constitutes a great player in this league? Points, cups, mvps, wins? Crosby has all of them. I don't care for the guy because like someone said, he has this entitlement attitude that somebody owes him something. It's gotten better over time but i still don't like him. This is coming from a die hard penguins fan that grew up loving Lemieux, jagr, francis, stevens (currently on drug charges) Kenny wregget, barrasso  ulf. When Lemieux took him under his wing, I think that's where the entitlement came. As for the great players in this  league, if you are talking cups, points and wins, you have to start with my boys in Chicago. Toews makes a ton but as crazy as this is to say, he is very underrated. Granted he stunk it up this playoffs, he is still the man. He does what a lot of forwards don't, he plays the whole ice. He's the BEST face off guy in he league. He Ds up against the other teams best player every series too. Ask Backes, Kopitar, Kessler, Getztlaf and Parise.All these guys will tell you he's the the toughest to go against. He may not be fancy and he may not score 40 goals, but ask any GM and his name is in the top 3 on players that they would want. Kane, well, do we even need to say anything. He is the best player in the league hands down. Look at his playoff numbers and look at him in clutch games. When healthy, you have to put Crosby up there too. Talent wise, he's 100 in the video games! Haaaa. He has gotten tougher down low and he reminds me of jagr and Hossa in their primes in how hard he is to take off the puck. OV, he may be the most overrated player ever. All he does is score goals. That is it and he cannot win the big one. You cannot argue that. The league pushes both Crosby and him and I feel they need to look elsewhere. The boys over in Dallas are very good but they need to do it over an extended period of time. The next best thing and he's already arrived is taransenko. This kid will be a top 5 player every year. He's that good. He reminds me of kaner but he can take a hit. All that know hockey agree. I know I went off on a tangent here but when talking about all these guys, there is no way you can't have Crosby as a great player. This post title is ridiculous. Could Crosby be a bit overrated? Sure, but in comparison to the league, he is still on Mount Rushmore for NHL players that are currently playing. This thread may be a bit premature too with the pens still in it too. 

Toews has almost twice as many game winning goals (10) in the postseason than Crosby (6) and the most points of any player betweens games 4-7 in the playoffs. As clutch as a player gets offensively, even crazier when you consider the competition he has done it against.

Crosby puts up better numbers offensively but I think with everything that Toews brings to the table, he is the more effective player for his team.

Isnt it funny that in these conversations for best players, no one ever mentions Patrice Bergeron?

Bruins are nothing without him, anyone look at the season he had? 68 points and playing some of the best 2 way hockey in the league.

Bruins Patrice Bergeron almost always a Selke Trophy Finalist and is nominated yet AGAIN this season along with the Ducks Ryan Kesler and Kings Anze Kopitar