Crosby asserts himself in best player debate with McDavid

Watch the replay. Slow it down. Savor it.

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby skates the puck to the left wing corner in overtime Tuesday. Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Strome reaches out with his stick, tired at the end of a long shift of 3-on-3 hockey.
Crosby scrapes to a sudden stop, spraying snow. You can hear it on the TV broadcast. He curls into the corner as Strome veers toward the net. Then he turns around, squares up to Strome and slips the puck between his legs.
With Strome flailing and falling to his knees, Crosby zips past him to the right and avoids the outstretched stick of defenseman Darnell Nurse, dangling across the net front as goalie Cam Talbot shuffles across the crease on his knees. He flips a backhand shot past Talbot's glove.
Penguins win 6-5.
"It was a beautiful play," Oilers center Connor McDavid said. "Beautiful goal."

It was a display of some of the things that make Crosby what he is: Intelligence, creativity, edge work, stickhandling, puck protection and the best backhand in the game. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan called it one of the prettiest goals he'd seen. Forward Patric Hornqvist called it the nicest goal of Crosby's career.
That's saying a lot.
So is this:
"I think he showed tonight who's the best player in the world," Hornqvist said.
Before the season, NHL Network aired a five-part series called the "Top 50 NHL Players Right Now." In conjunction I picked my top 10 on NHL.com. Each of us ranked McDavid No. 1, Crosby No. 2. After all, each of the past two seasons McDavid had won the NHL scoring title and been voted the most outstanding player by his peers. McDavid was 21, Crosby 31.
Just last week, Crosby told NHL.com McDavid was the best player in the League. In fact, he called him an "easy pick." He said much the same thing before last season too.
I'm not budging now, certainly not based on one game, let alone one play, just as I didn't budge when I had Crosby No. 1 earlier in his NHL career and players like Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos challenged him.
McDavid has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in seven games this season, and is tied with Penguins center Evgeni Malkin for first in the NHL in points per game (1.86). Crosby has seven points (two goals, five assists) in seven games.

But here are three thoughts:
1. When people rank McDavid No. 1, especially when it's the players themselves, it's a huge compliment, particularly because of who's No. 2. That's how good McDavid is.
McDavid doesn't have anywhere close to the same type of team around him either. The Oilers have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs once in the past 12 seasons. The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup three times in the past 10.
In the five games between McDavid and Crosby, McDavid has nine points (three goals, six assists) and Crosby three (two goals, one assist). But the Penguins are 5-0-0, the Oilers 0-2-3.
2. When stars go head to head, this is what you want to see, individual talent shining within a team game.
McDavid matched up against Crosby much of the game at even strength. At one point in the first period, Crosby showed his speed and strength by muscling McDavid away from the Pittsburgh net. When Crosby was on the ice, the Penguins had the puck more.
But it only was when they got away from each other that they produced offensively. Crosby scored on the power play in the first. McDavid had a goal and an assist on the power play in the third. Then, with McDavid on the ice but away from the play, Crosby scored that gorgeous overtime goal.
We can hope Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews and Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine, the top two picks in the 2016 NHL Draft, live up to the hype when they play at Bell MTS Place on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, SN1, TVA Sports).
3. Crosby is 31, not 41. Injuries cost him chunks of his prime, but the silver lining is that he has played relatively few games for a player in his 14th NHL season who has made deep playoff runs (871 in the regular season, 160 in the playoffs). Even though he has won just about everything there is to win, he takes nothing for granted.
This is a guy who brought his hockey gear on his European vacation in the summer, who was caught by TV cameras working on his stickhandling in a Rogers Place hallway before the game Tuesday, honing the skills he would use later.
"He's just really a driven guy," Sullivan said. "He doesn't really get caught up in a lot of the storylines from game to game or regardless of who we play. He's just a real good player that tries to be the best that he can be."
For all the young talent in the NHL and on the cusp, from McDavid to Matthews to Jack Hughes, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, Crosby should be one of the best, if not the best, for a long time to come.