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E
merging from the work stoppage
of 2004-05 was a venture into the
great unknown for the National
Hockey League. When games resumed
in October of 2005, such aging
luminaries as Vincent Damphousse,
Ron Francis, Igor Larionov, Al MacInnis,
Mark Messier, Adam Oates and Scott
Stevens, having already put their feet
up for 310 straight days, chose to retire
their skates rather than return to action.
The League was turning younger, the
players stronger, the game faster than
ever. The rebranded NHL implemented
new rules to promote speed, reward
playmaking ability and enhance
offensive play. New stars emerged.
A whopping 265 players – 230
skaters and 35 goaltenders – were
classified as rookies in 2005-06, but
two were clearly in a class of their
own, ready to replace some of the star
power that faded off into retirement.
Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney
Crosby, the No. 1 choices of the
2004 and 2005 NHL Entry Drafts,
respectively, each made their League
debut on Oct. 5, 2005, approximately
205 miles apart.
At MCI Center in Washington, D.C.,
20-year-old Ovechkin scored his first
two goals – one on the power play –
4:30 apart in the second period of a 3-2
home victory against Columbus before
a crowd of 16,325.
“He was worth the admission
tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Gerard
Gallant said of Ovechkin, the first
player in Capitals history to score twice
in his NHL debut. “He was real good.”
At Continental Airlines Arena in
East Rutherford, N.J., with 18,101 fans
in attendance, 18-year-old Crosby
didn’t experience quite as enjoyable
or productive an evening, but he did
record an assist in a 5-1 road loss
against the Devils.
“The kid’s going to be a great player
in this League for a long time,” said
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux,
Crosby’s boss and occasional linemate.
“I thought he played well and didn’t
look out of place at all.”
Crosby scored his first goal three
Rookie Revival
By Rocky Bonanno
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are
arguably the two best players in the game
today and have been tied together since
debuting on the same night in 2005.
Recalling the debut season of Alex the Great and Sid the Kid

2. 3737
nights later, and he and Ovechkin have
been flying ever since. But you can
only have one true rookie season, and
the NHL’s mega-watt star duo reached
heights in Year One not enjoyed by the
most seasoned of veterans.
Consider …
• 2005-06 was the first season in NHL
history in which two rookies scored
100 points each, with Ovechkin
reaching 106 and Crosby totaling 102.
• Prior to 2005-06, only five rookies had
scored 100 points in a season.
• It was the first time in the NHL’s post-
expansion era (starting with 1967-68)
that two rookies finished in the top
10 in scoring. Ovechkin was third and
Crosby placed sixth.
• At 18 years, eight months, Crosby
became the youngest player in NHL
history to score 100 points.
• Ovechkin became the second rookie
in NHL history to score 50 goals and
100 points, joining Teemu Selanne,
who scored 76 goals and 132 points
for Winnipeg in 1992-93.
• Ovechkin’s 52 goals were the third-
most by a rookie, trailing only
Selanne’s 76 and Mike Bossy’s 53 for
the New York Islanders in 1977-78.
• Ovechkin led the NHL in shots (425),
setting a rookie record and recording
the fourth-highest total in League
history.
To be so good, so fast, and so
young. Being a No. 1 pick has never
guaranteed NHL success, but Ovechkin
and Crosby have been off-the-charts
sensational since Oct. 5, 2005, and they
are the rightful focal points of the 2011
Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic for all
they’ve done since that date.
Ovechkin and Crosby helped reignite
the NHL after a season off, and their
careers will always be cross-referenced
for having begun on the same date.
But for all their offensive exploits and
accomplishments, the two are worlds
apart in terms of their public personas
(Ovechkin the extrovert, Crosby the
introvert), and therein lies the rivalry,
egged on by media and fans, that
began in 2005-06 and blossomed
during four Capitals-Penguins regular
season matchups.
The day before the first Ovechkin-
Crosby head-to-head meeting, the two
were offered to the national media on
an NHL-run conference call -- certainly
not an every-day occurrence for two
rookies.
“He’s a great player. Obviously he
has had a great start to the season
so far [15-6-21 in 20 games],” Crosby
said when asked of his impression of
Ovechkin. “He’s got good speed. He
can do it all I think. He’s got a great
shot, too. He’s definitely dangerous
when he’s out there. He’s someone I’m
sure other teams have to watch. He’s
really dangerous. So, like I said, he’s a
great player.”
Returning the praise, Ovechkin said
of Crosby: “Well, I didn’t see his game
a lot, but I think he’s a great player.
And again, he can be faster than the
other players, that’s it. I think that, you
know, he’s a dangerous guy.”
Crosby and the Penguins got the
better of the first head-to-head battle,
taking a 4-0 first period lead en route to
a 5-4 victory before a standing room-
only crowd of 16,978 at Mellon Arena
on Nov. 22, 2005. Crosby scored a goal
and an assist, while Ovechkin managed
an assist. Crosby was named First Star
of the game, and Ovechkin placed
third.
A little more than two months later,
for meeting No. 2, Crosby once again
came out on top with his first career
four-point outing (1 goal, 3 assists)
in an 8-1 victory at Mellon Arena on
Jan. 25, 2006. Ovechkin also hit the
scoresheet with a second-period
power-play goal, his 34th of the season.
Crosby’s goal was his 24th.
One day before the second meeting,
Lemieux retired from the NHL as a
player for the final time, and made it
a point to comment on the influx of
talented young players who would
become the next generation of
superstars. “I also realized that the new
Blessed with a blistering shot and an uncanny ability to score from nearly anywhere on the ice,
Alexander Ovechkin is the league’s best sniper. He also brings a physical presence every night.

3. 38
Rookie Revival
NHL is really for the young guys,” he
said. “And I think that these young guys
are really the future of the NHL.”
Obviously, Lemieux had Ovechkin
and Crosby in mind when he made
those comments.
“(Mario) is gone and he will be
missed,” Crosby said. “You never can
replace him or fill in his shoes. Now
there are a lot of us young guys who
have to step up. ”
On Feb. 11, 2006, the season series
shifted to MCI Center and the Penguins
made it 3-for-3 with a 6-3 victory in
front of 18,277 disappointed fans who
saw the Capitals fall behind, 5-0, after
40 minutes. Ovechkin and Crosby
each scored goals (Nos. 36 and 28,
respectively), and Sid the Kid added an
assist for good measure.
Their fourth and final rookie meeting
finally went Washington’s way in a 6-3
home win on March 8, 2006.
“We didn’t want to see Ovi go out
of here without winning this game,”
Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said. “We
tried to really take away the fact that it
was Crosby-Ovechkin. We just wanted
to make this a team game, and I think
we played a strong game.”
With their first head-to-head series
done, the forever-linked rookies were
a bit more candid in addressing their
budding rivalry.
“We finally beat this team, and I’m
happy,” said Ovechkin, who scored
a goal and two assists. “He’s a good
player, but we don’t think about each
other. We play for a team and try to
help the team to win.”
“The competition is always high
when we play each other,” said Crosby,
who recorded an assist. “That’s to be
expected. It’s just the way it goes –
someone has to come out on top.”
Crosby finished the season series
with three goals and six assists against
Washington. Ovechkin compiled
three goals and three assists against
Pittsburgh. The fans were given
countless thrills.
With their mano-a-mano complete,
and Ovechkin leading Crosby by 10
points in the rookie scoring race, the
only thing left to compete for was the
Calder Trophy. Though they finished
the season only four points apart, the
Ovechkin’s speed and stick-handling make
him nearly impossible to stop one-on-one.

4. 40
Rookie Revival
seasons both franchises had struggled,
putting each in the position to select
high and rebuild through the Entry
Draft. But what if the 2004 Draft order
hadn’t been altered by the League’s
weighted lottery?
Can you picture it? Ovechkin in the
black and gold of the Penguins?
Pittsburgh finished 2003-04 with
an NHL-worst 58 points, followed by
Chicago and Washington, each with 59.
But the Capitals won the Draft lottery
and leapfrogged two spots to No. 1.
“We just feel in some way we were
rewarded for the difficult task we
undertook this year,” Washington
general manager George McPhee said
at the time. “We hope today is the first
day in a new era for the Capitals.”
Don’t feel bad for Pittsburgh. On July
22, 2005, the team emerged with the
No. 1 pick in the most wide-open pre-
draft lottery in history. Because there
wasn’t a 2004-05 season to establish
a draft order, a system was installed
where all 30 teams had a chance at
the top selection. Clubs were assigned
one to three lottery balls based on
their playoff appearances from 2001-02
through 2003-04 and first overall draft
picks from the drafts of 2001 through
2004. Only four clubs – the Rangers,
Columbus, Buffalo and Pittsburgh
– had the maximum three balls in
the lottery, and thus the greatest
percentage, 6.3 percent, of winning the
No. 1 pick (Washington was one of 16
clubs with only one ball in the lottery).
The Penguins won the selection,
and the entire hockey world knew
that Crosby, the 18-year-old wonder
from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, was
Pittsburgh-bound.
Ovechkin-Crosby. Crosby-Ovechkin.
So different, yet so alike, and both
were at the forefront of a magical
2005-06 season. At today’s NHL Winter
Classic, we celebrate their arrival as
NHL superstars. n
race wasn’t that close in the minds of
the voters, who gave Ovechkin the
rookie of the year honor with 1,275
points (124 first-place votes). Crosby
was second with 831 points (four
first-place votes). Perhaps the deciding
edge was Ovechkin becoming the
fourth rookie in League history to score
50 goals, including one of the most
spectacular you’ll ever see – a no-look,
rolling-on-his-back, hook-the-puck-
over-his-head beauty against Phoenix
on Jan. 16, 2006.
Ovechkin scored 52 of Washington’s
230 goals, or 22.6 percent, the highest
for any NHL player in 2005-06. The
supporting talent on the Capitals
wasn’t particularly strong, with
Dainius Zubrus (57 points) placing
second in team scoring, just ahead of
the likes of Jeff Halpern, Chris Clark
and Matt Pettinger. Crosby, on the
other hand, learned the NHL ropes
from All-Star veteran teammates like
Sergei Gonchar, Mark Recchi, John
LeClair, Zigmund Palffy and, before his
retirement, Lemieux.
In 2005-06, the only NHL players
to either score or assist on at least
40 percent of their team’s goals were
Jaromir Jagr (49.2 percent) of the New
York Rangers, Ovechkin (46.1) and
Crosby (42.0).
It certainly didn’t take fans in
Washington and Pittsburgh long to
take to their new stars. For several
Crosby showed flashes of his brilliant play-
making ability as a rookie and has worked
hard each season to improve his game and
become the best all-around player in the NHL.