The two faces most responsible for bringing the NHL full-throttle into the 21st century are inextricably linked. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin get it, even if they'd rather not talk about it.
Their simultaneous arrival following the 2004-05 lockout served as the league's version of a winning lottery ticket. Yin and yang on skates. Crosby the ever-polite Canadian with the otherworldly skills drafted by Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux and brought to Pittsburgh to help rescue a franchise in tatters. Ovechkin all snarling id, a hard-hitting, hard-shooting Russian born in Moscow near the tail end of the Cold War and brought to the U.