Crosby or Ovechkin?  Here in Pittsburgh, the answer is Crosby.  In Washington, it's Ovechkin.  In the rest of the NHL its probably Ovechkin as well, although no one doubts the talents of either player.  It's just that Ovechkin is a happy, excitable guy and Crosby is, well, he's Crosby.  Maybe that should be "Cross"-by with as much as he complains.

Hockey is an amazingly tolerant sport in some aspects.  Walker blasts Ward in the face last night, and Ward says it was a sucker-punch, yet Ward was squared off against Walker, and had to expect that the overhand right was coming.  Ward seemed surprised when his face gets blasted by Walker's fist.  The punch was debated at length, and will continue to be debated, but the bottom line of it is that hockey tolerates such physical antics far more than any other sport.  In the NFL, if that happened, the player would be suspended for games and fined probably a six-figure amount.  In the NHL it was a $2,500 fine.  Tolerant.

To a degree.  While hockey occasionally plays up its physical side, there seems to be an equally powerful trend to shut up people that whine too much.  In this, Sidney Crosby is probably the ring leader.  Since he entered the NHL as an 18 year-old rookie, he's been labeled a whiner.  The latest tidbit - saying that the Washington fans kept throwing their hats on the ice for too long after Ovie's hat trick - is just the latest example.  He would have been better served to keep his trap shut. 

Crosby is showing in this series that he's not about to take a back seat to Ovechkin.  They are both playing hockey at other-worldly levels right now.  Pride and desire are feeding these two players, and turning a great series into something beyond great.  It's too bad that the rest of the teams aren't picking up the same tempo as these two, but the series has been hard-fought and well-played for the most part.  I think the Pens are slowly dismantling the Caps defensive corps, which is why I think the Pens will win this series, but the offensive wizardry has certainly been on display. 

The trouble with comparing these two players is that they play different games.  Crosby is a playmaker first - he looks to make the dish.  His passing is top three in the game, and his shot is every bit as dangerous as Ovechkin's - he just doesn't have the range, nor the pure shooting ability like the Great 8.  Ovechkin's wrister is devastating, and he's the best pure sniper in the league without a doubt.  So who would you rather have?  The playmaker with 30-35 goal potential, or the Ovechkin, 50+ goals and about the same in assists?  It doesn't matter - these two are putting on the kind of show that the NHL has been praying for, and it's helped a great deal that rookie netminder Varlamov has been sensational.  Without him, the Caps are already golfing.  That's how good he's been.

The Bruins righted their ship last night, and one has to wonder if the late-game punch thrown by Walker into Ward's face won't be the final straw for Boston.  They finally put together a great, solid game - but waiting until they're facing a 1-3 deficit certainly reduces the margin for error.  What I saw last night, however, makes me think that Boston is very capable of winning this series.  Two more games with the same passion, intensity and hockey intelligence will be required, but they're capable.  The Canes will get a boost in playing game 6 at home with a chance to clinch.  In my opinion, if the Canes are going to win this series they have to win game 6.  They'll have no chance at stealing a game 7 win from Boston if it goes that far.

In the west, the Hawks took a 3-2 lead and the series returns to Chicago's noisy stadium for the sixth game.  I think the Hawks will take this series - they'll have to play through the Canucks' stifling neutral-zone trap road-game system they'll face, but they have the youngsters and the speed to do it.  The Canucks have Luongo, however, and I think that the Hawks have to win this game 6 to win the series.  I'd take Roberto Luongo in a 1-game all or nothing game every single time.

Finally, Detroit looks to have righted itself after a brief stumble against Anaheim.  I think the Wings are the best team in the NHL and will likely win the Cup (as much as I hate saying that) because they're so talented, so deep, so balanced and so experienced.  There's just too much "so" involved with this team.  They can win any game that the opponent throws at them.  Plus, I think that whether it's Chicago or Vancouver, that if the Wings make it to the Western Finals they'll easily push aside their opponent.