From TSN.ca:
Mario Lemieux had some high praise for Sidney Crosby.
“He’s a special kid,” Lemieux said Saturday night. “He’s a better player than I was at the same age, for sure. Some of the things that he does on the ice, his strength, skating ability is incredible. His passion for the game and his will to be the best each and every shift.
I was perusing TSN and although this article is a few days old it got me thinking that this is pretty high praise from one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
The regular season numbers look like this:
Mario Lemieux | Sidney Crosby | ||||||||||
Year | GP | G | A | Pts | PPG | Year | GP | G | A | Pts | PPG |
1 | 73 | 43 | 57 | 100 | 1.37 | 1 | 81 | 39 | 63 | 102 | 1.26 |
2 | 79 | 48 | 93 | 141 | 1.78 | 2 | 79 | 36 | 84 | 120 | 1.52 |
3 | 63 | 54 | 53 | 107 | 1.70 | 3 | 53 | 24 | 48 | 72 | 1.36 |
4 | 77 | 70 | 98 | 168 | 2.18 | 4 | 77 | 33 | 70 | 103 | 1.34 |
Now we are comparing the high scoring 1980’s which only had 21 teams with the more constricted 2000’s and 30 teams. Its also difficult to compare them because the styles of both guys are so different.
So why don’t you be the judge. Here are the Top 10 Goals of each player. Which is better?
Mario Lemieux
Sidney Crosby