Crosby? Ovechkin? Malkin? Why today's casual collector can only choose one. And why Nick Lidstrom is a better choice.

Last night's game between the soon-to-be rival Penguins and Capitals featured the three players which we will remember in 20 years as being the best of this generation. While Jagr still tops the league in points and Mr. Selanne sits in third to my surprise and delight, it is Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin that will undoubtably rule the NHL and the hobby over the next decade or two.


Sidney Crosby's upper deck rookie can be had for a benjamin

The Penguins got the best of the Caps on Monday night, 5-4. C&M (too reminiscent of Meg and Chris, my sister and her ex-boyfriend of eighth years - she is 19), ignited a four goal comeback concluding with a shootout victory. That game could be seen FREE on Versus. There is and will be little else to do with C-O-M that doesn't C-O-M-E with an enormous price tag.

While searching for tickets to the Pens/Bruins game during the presale way back when, I struck out miserably trying to get balcony tix. Tickets can be had I am sure, but I don't want to know for how much.

In the hobby, this problem is only escalated, a sad but inevitable truth to any young collectors looking to pot a card of their life long role models. Worse so is the problem for rookie collectors. The days of attaining one of a superstar's better rookie cards for a $20 bill are gone. Even for $50 or $100, unlikely. Rick Nash recent set the new generation precedent, with his UD Premier Patch Auto card hitting the $1400 plus mark. That's for a young superstar who has grossly underperformed so far this year. Let me try to get across just how far the hobby has changed over the last decade.


Evgeni Malkin's first rookie release from Upper Deck Black Diamond has been selling upwards of $200 a pop - hopefully I will pull one come Christmas morning.

Take a look at Nicklas Lidstrom's career stats. He is four goals away from 200, is 12th on the all-time assists list among active players, and right now, in his 15th season (14 playoff years), all with the Red Wings, he is the only defenseman to lead his team in points (25). Just glancing at his stats, I am impressive by his longetivity, especially with one team. Ray Bourque almost got there - but didn't. Lidstrom is a model of excellence, of consistency. Perhaps the most remarkable stat of all - he is +322 for his career. Not a single negative season. Another amazing feat - in all 15 years, with the exception of the shortened 1994-95 campaign, Nick has appeared in at least 78 games. And that only happened once. Despite leading nearly all of those teams in minutes, and playing deep into the playoffs almost every year, he has managed to stay 100% healthy. I would have to look around a bit - but I imagine it would be hard pressed to find many, if any, career resumes as impressive, solid and consistent as Lidstrom's.


If I can't resist, Ovechkin will likely have my loyalties before Sidney or Evgeni

I have yet to decide whose rookie I will pursue - although right now I'm leaning toward Ovechkin first - but so you can actually see it played out, look at what I just purchased for $16.15. The pictured Lidstrom lot, which books for $30 (all rookies - including his best at a bargain $3!, a 7-card Sergei Federov lot which includes 3 copies of his best rookie from the 90-91 OPC Premier set, 7 upper deck Peter Forsberg rookies which book at $10 each and 6 Markus Naslund upper deck rookies which book at $5 each. So we are talking about $150 plus worth of hall of famer rookie cards for the price of - say, two packs of your middle-of-the-line 2006-07 hockey product which contain, in every 4 or 5 boxes or maybe 100-200 packs, a $200 or $300 Malkin rookie.

And if the hype is too much too resist, well, I've done the work for you. You can buy a 20-card set featuring Crosby's phenominal beginning in 2005-06 for just $11.99 at this retailer. And on ebay, you can find the Crosby/Ovechkin dual card pictured below for anywhere between $5 to $40. There are plenty available around $10, and for a card that I heard may book at $50, and features two of the three next generation players, this may be the only financially available path for today's casual collector.

For a final comment, I want to add that despite the hobby boom over the past decade, C-O-M may actually be worth it. All three have IT - but more importantly, they all play with that drive and compassion that at some point will bring good fortune to their respective cities. And we can always watch them on Versus for free.