- Vote: Five big questions on Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin
- Make picks: Award winners| Division, conference and Stanley Cup | Power Rankings
- Chat wraps: E.J. Hradek| ESPN Chicago on Blackhawks | Pierre LeBrun

The NHL regular season kicks off tonight, but we have to wait until Jan. 21 to get our first showdown between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin (in either a brilliant marketing stroke that will build anticipation to untold levels or the worst bit of scheduling this side of the Emmys). By a 71-29 percent margin, SportsNation feels the league would be better served by Ovechkin evening the championship score than by Crosby winning his second title. Regardless, the individual duel will rage on.
SportsNation blogger NYandMU likes Ovechkin and the Capitals to win the Eastern Conference, but the highest individual honors go to someone else entirely.
- No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins: Here is the thing with the Penguins, they did win the Cup last year, but they are not at their elite level in the regular season. They should be in the fight for the division until the end, but they might lose out to Philly (probably winning the regular season series of course). Not much analysis is needed on them, but Malkin is the best player in the NHL, sorry Sid. -- Read the full post.
“The Penguins are gonna run the East for a long long time considering the best two players in the world (Crosby and Malkin) are 22 and 23 respectively. Not to mention Staal is the youngest at 21. In the four/five years they have been in the league they have won 2 Prince of Whales trophies, 2 Hart Trophies (even though Malkin has been nominated the last three years but somehow loses to Ovechkin), a Conn Smythe, Rookie of the year X2, X2 Art Ross trophies, and a little thing called the Stanley Cup.
” -- SteelMafia43
“the only thing alexander ovechkin is good for.....fantasy hockey
” -- pitthaus
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No. 1 Drew Brees
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CHAT IN PROGRESS
MNF: Titans vs. Texans!
- Aaron SchatzUh, Chris, "stop the mistakes" is a pretty good recipe for ANY team to make the playoffs. It isn't like the Steelers have some special "awesomeness if not for a few mistakes" power that other teams don't have And that's not a super-easy schedule the rest of the way, with Baltimore TWICE and Miami, although Green Bay obviously looks much, much less dangerous without Al Harris and Aaron Kampman for the rest of the year. Anyway, the Steelers are a good team and I would guess they have a better chance than most to get a wild card, but it isn't a cakewalk. (Mmmmm... cakewalk...)
- craig (Indianapolis)i was hopeful after last year that the titans would make a run at the colts' dominance. will any of the afc south teams curb indy's dominance if peyton's still in town?
- Aaron SchatzWait, you are in Indianapolis and want the Colts to lose? Man, you live in hostile territory. Anyway, other teams have made a run at being as good as the Colts, but the Colts themselves just win 12 games year after year after year. When will it end? Well, other than a Manning injury, I think two things can take down the Colts, at least temporarily. 1)When Jeff Saturday retires, because so much of Manning's ability to call plays on the field and guide the offense is connected to Saturday's ability to work with him and the offensive line. You saw how the Colts offense had problems when Saturday was injured at the start of last year. Saturday is a year older than Manning and quarterbacks last longer than centers. 2) When Bill Polian retires, because he's done such a good job of picking out talent that is undervalued (even, often, undrafted) but perfectly fits the Colts system. Although if Chris Polian takes over for him, nobody may notice the difference.
- Chris (Virginia Beach)I'm so glad that Chris Johnson is on MNF so the country can finally see that he is THE BEST BACK INT HE LEAGUE!! Is it just me or is he the most exciting player the NFL may have ever seen? I'm not saying best, or whatever, but pure explosion. Your thoughts.
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