Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin, Malkin, Avery as "The New Face of the NHL"

"Sidney Crosby is the new face of the NHL."

We've heard it so many times that it now haunts us in our dreams. There is some debate about whether it should be Ovechkin, who is promoted by the new NHL as its' "face."

Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin leads the NHL in points -- goals plus assists -- and Sean Avery gets a great deal of attention.

Does the NHL belong to one of its top three scorers, the new hockey heroes, or hockey villain Sean Avery (also known as King of the Agitators)?  Sean Avery is the NHL's No. 1 bad boy, Superpast, most hated man in the NHL, and according to People magazine, one of the sexiest men alive. As Martin Brodeur referred to him, "the Vogue intern."

Avery is a Gap model. Crosby does Gatorade commercials. The Russian stars perform at the skills competition during the NHL's All-Star Game.

Crosby plays with Malkin for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He'll play against Malkin and Ovechkin at the Olympics.

Will Avery be there to help Crosby? He's not on anyone's Olympic prospects list—at least from what I've seen.

Ovechkin and Malkin lead the NHL in goals and points. Crosby is second in points. Avery has been off for a few months in anger management classes, and is playing his way back into the NHL (with the AHL).

For a while, it looked like Avery would wind up in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) playing in Siberia, where Malkin comes from.

When you daydream about the NHL, who do you see? Sid the Kid, Malkin, Ovechkin, or a magazine star?

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?