Bob Duff

Like a character in the movie Swingers, Jackson Cooke is so money and he doesn't even know it. The son of Pittsburgh Penguins left winger Matt Cooke is only four years old, far too young to recognize the good fortune that has fallen his way.

"Six months ago, Alex Ovechkin was his best friend,” Cooke said. “And now, Sidney Crosby is his best friend. And he just takes that for normal."

The rest of the hockey world recognizes their good fortune, however.

When the defending Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins and the reigning Southeast Division winners the Washington Capitals clash beginning Saturday on NBC (1 p.m. ET) at Washington’s Verizon Center in their second-round playoff series, the star power will be glowing in full illumination.

It’s Pittsburgh’s Sid The Kid versus Washington’s Alex The Great, Nos. 1 and 1A in the National Hockey League in face time and fan popularity, the order of which likely depends on which way you’re leaning in this series.

The NHL has been waiting for a marquee playoff matchup of such voltage for many a moon.
How many, you ask?

Well, the last time there were these kind of mega superstars on both sides of the ice in the postseason, the NHL was a 12-team league.

You have to go back to the 1970 quarterfinals, where Gordie Howe led the Detroit Red Wings into battle against Bobby Hull and his Chicago Blackhawks.

Mr. Hockey versus the Golden Jet. It didn’t get any better than that.

Until now.

This should be as good as it gets.

On one side, there’s the fire, unmatched puck skills of the dipsy doodle dandy that is Ovechkin. On the opposite side of center, Crosby brings passion, determination and the finest set of puck-distributing abilities in the game.

Both of them superstars.

Both of them first overall draft picks.

Both of them as competitive as they come, but as much as they are out to outdo the other, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a mutual admiration society at work here.

Asked to pick out the quality he most admires in Ovechkin, Crosby doesn’t hesitate.

“I'd say his goal-scoring ability,” Crosby said. “I don't think you can really teach anyone that. It's just a knack. It's an ability. You know, he definitely has that. So it's exciting to watch when someone can score goals like that.”

Asked the same question, Ovechkin also won’t take a pass, but he’d sure take a bit of Crosby’s passing ability.

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“I think how he controls the puck,” Ovechkin lists as Crosby’s greatest asset. “He's a great player. I watch lots of games he plays. He just gives the pass, and guys just love to shoot, you know.

“How he finds his partners. It's unbelievable.”

Almost as unbelievable as this showdown could be for hockey as a whole.

Other sports have been blessed with many sensational showdowns. For years, the NBA rode the Magic-Bird rivalry to the top of the television rating and now is on the brink of another such showdown, with LeBron and Kobe seemingly on a collision course to clash in the league final series for the first time.

In the Super Bowl, we’ve seen Brett Favre go head-to-head with John Elway and Joe Montana trade passes with Dan Marino.

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Major League Baseball was injected with fervor by its Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa one-upmanship in pursuit of the single-season home-run record, though it probably wishes you’d forget about that one today.

Hockey’s waited a long time for this kind of superstar standoff.

When Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux ruled over the hockey world, they never met on the ice in a playoff series. Gretzky did face off with Guy Lafleur and the Montreal Canadiens in the 1981 playoffs, but Lafleur was a mere shadow of his greatness by that point in time.

Perhaps you could make a case for the Patrick Roy-Martin Brodeur goaltending battle in the 2001 Stanley Cup finals between Colorado and New Jersey. You could, that is, if goaltending were the reason that people flocked through the turnstiles.

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As much as stopping the puck is essential to ultimate success, no one’s ever bought a ticket to see great netminding.

They pay to see the show, not the stopper.

Howe and Hull were the showstoppers in the 1960s and it didn’t hurt when they met six times in the playoffs during that decade, including the 1961 finals, the last time the Blackhawks lifted Lord Stanley’s mug.

In that scenario, Hull would be Ovechkin — a dynamic personality, blazing fast on his skates, armed with the game’s hardest shot, the first NHLer to score more than 50 goals in a season. Howe was more like Crosby — an all-around player, determined to succeed, willing to do whatever it takes and to carry his team on his back.

“I think with my game, I'm more much a playmaker and I think Alex is more of a shooter,” Crosby said.

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