I’m a hockey fan first and foremost but I couldn’t help but admire what Steph Curry was able to do to Chris Paul recently.
That got me thinking. When was the last time we saw a case of one NHL star completely owning another?
I immediately thought of the time Sidney Crosby put Jason Spezza through a bag skate.
That play was just a little reminder that that there are stars like Spezza and then there are absolute martians like Crosby. That clinic was in the final five minutes of regulation, too.
I tweeted out my question about NHL stars owning other NHL stars and the responses I got lead to some jaw-dropping moments.
Here’s Crosby once again, this time breaking the ankles of then-rookie Nathan MacKinnon. This came in from @powerplaywithcj.
Sportsnet’s own Jordan Heath-Rawlings tweeted me this one of Pavel Datsyuk a.k.a. the Magic Man making Logan Couture fall backwards like it was his first time on skates. How good is this deke? It made the play-by-play commentator laugh like Krusty the Clown.
Then my search for star vs. star clips took a lengthy U-turn. Want to waste hours of your life? Type in “Ovechkin” on YouTube and just see where it leads you.
Let’s begin the “Alex Ovechkin vs. the world” section with Hart Trophy-winning Ovechkin taking Norris Trophy-winning PK Subban for a little ride.
And Ovechkin destroying Evgeni Malkin.
And this other Ovechkin-Malkin collision that didn’t go as well.
Alex Ovechkin doesn’t have a monopoly on star-on-star hits. Scott Stevens used to do that quite often. The difference between most of the players Ovechkin has hit and the players Stevens hit is that Oveckin’s recipients got up.
“What about the Paul Kariya hit?!?” Obviously that’s going in there.
And last but not least, Mario Lemieux undresses Ray Bourque on a goal that was requested by Sportsnet’s Mike Cormack. This goal, unfortunately, was uploaded with a potato.
Good hockey is good hockey. Whether it’s a big hit, sweet move, or beautiful goal, a good play is a good play. Despite that, there’s just something about one of the game’s best going toe-to-toe with each other.
What do you have to say? Any list of sports moments is going to leave a few deserving clips off. What ones would you have included? Tweet them to me @Steve_Dangle or leave a comment below.
