Hockey debates involving NHL players from different eras are always a tricky deal.

You never know exactly how any player would play in a different generation, so it’s not entirely fair to elite talent to compare and contrast them with players they’d never actually played against.

That said, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar center Sidney Crosby has just moved past Pens icon Mario Lemieux for the most points in the regular season and Stanley Cup playoffs in Penguins history.

Crosby posted his 1,896th career point in the Penguins’ win over the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night in his 1,539th career game. Lemieux had 1,895 in 1,022 career games.

So the question follows – who is the best Penguin of all-time?

The right answer, from this writer’s perspective, is Lemieux.

The reason is not just that Lemieux had a significantly better points percentage – 1.85 points per game – than Crosby’s 1.23 points per game. You also have to consider the challenges Lemieux faced when you compare him with ‘Sid The Kid.’

Now, we’re not for a moment suggesting that Crosby has been pampered and protected. We’re merely noting that many of Lemieux’s on-ice years took place in the worst years of the NHL’s Dead Puck Era, where players were mugged on the regular and when goalie equipment was mushrooming. And in spite of all that, Lemieux still dominated the sport at a level only Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr have.

Indeed, Lemieux’s famous “garage league” comment in 1992 was made out of legitimate frustration with what the league allowed lesser-light players to get away with. Lemieux knew the heights his talent was capable of reaching and what he wasn’t being allowed to do in the name of so-called “competition” when he made that remark.

Any Crosby/Lemieux debate can’t look past what might’ve been if Lemieux were more fortunate on the health front and in terms of the era in which he played. Fully healthy, and in today's NHL, Lemieux would’ve been the closest thing to a legitimate threat to Gretzky’s all-time point total, and no mere man could’ve done that.

Comparing Crosby’s greatness as slightly secondary to Lemieux’s shouldn’t detract from Crosby’s status as a top-10 talent of all-time.

He’s arguably a more complete player than Lemieux, with a defensive game that’s helped Crosby win three Cups to Lemieux’s two. And Crosby’s longevity also is worthy of great respect and admiration. He’s now in his 21st NHL season at age 38, showing no signs of slowing down despite dealing with concussion issues early in his career.

But looking at the totality of both players’ careers, we’re sticking with picking Lemieux over Crosby in a photo-finish decision.

Lemieux played only 17 seasons, appearing in 70 games or more in six of them.

But in that limited time, Lemieux won three Hart Trophies as league MVP (Crosby has two), two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP (Crosby has two) and six Art Ross Trophies as top point-producer (Crosby has two, and he has two Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophies as the top goal-scorer). And Lemieux was a first- or second-team all-star nine times to Crosby’s eight. The stats and awards are mostly in Lemieux’s favor, and that’s just indisputable. And that's why we'd pick Lemieux ahead of Crosby.

Sidney Crosby Breaks Impressive Franchise Record <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/">Pittsburgh Penguins</a>' captain Sidney Crosby has just broken a team record long-held by the franchise's most iconic legend.

Nobody’s saying Crosby isn’t one of the greatest to ever do it. He’s done it all at an iconic level, from the second he stepped into the league until today. If you were picking an NHL team at this minute, you’d want him for his all-around talent, eternal calm, saint’s patience and his skills as a humble hockey ambassador. There’s nothing not to like about him as a player and a human being.

The thing is, when you contrast Lemieux with Crosby, you have to concede that you can say all those things about Lemieux as well. And in the end, it’s also true ‘Super Mario’ had that little extra bit of zing and that extra dash of dominance that gives him the narrow edge over Crosby as the top Penguin of all-time. There have been precious few who ever played better than Lemieux, and that should be reflected by giving him the nod over Crosby. 

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