Is McDavid as popular as Crosby was at the same age?

[These Are The Days]

The Crosby marketing hype was OUT OF CONTROL about 10 years ago. These are just a few where he's a focal point.







And this is not including the NHL live (at least I think it was) commercials where it showed him scoring a goal and then the text card said Goal: Crosby, Assists: Malkin, Staal

AND another NHL live commercial that started with Crosby scoring some stupid good goal and Steigerwald losing his mind and then the narrator pops up "If Crosby scores a goal in Pittsburgh... will you see it Los Angeles?"

This is also not taking into account there must've been at least 2 other Penguins/Crosby commercials that were not as prominent

All of this from about 2006-2009

It was f***ing unbearable.....


The Rays went to the World Series in 2008 and by contrast, the Penguins got more airtime and marketing on my Tampa TV than they did.....



McDavid probably has a ton of stuff but I have yet to see it if ever. You'd forget he even exists here in Tampa. 10 years ago NHL marketing didn't let you breathe without reminding you that Crosby was THE thing

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Having Lemieux there saving the franchise and finishing his career while Crosby was just starting his career, it was a feel good story that every one latched on to, the torch was literally being passed. The league also wanted to market their stars similar to the NBA during the lockout. All anyone could talk about was Ovechkin vs Crosby. The constant talk about who was better during their first couple of years, the hype, buzz and attention was crazy. McDavid playing in a small Canadian market on a bad team doesn’t help his exposure.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

If you asked a random sports fan in the US to name 3 hockey players, they would name Gretzky, Crosby, and Ovechkin. Crosby and Ovechkin were hyped to an insane degree, especially between 2005-10. They are more of a household name than Lemieux, Orr and Howe.

2010 when Crosby got the concussion and Ovechkin had a really bad season is when it started to die down a bit. NHL realized they need to market some other stars as well.

 

[Machinehead]

Americans who don't even watch hockey know who Sidney Crosby is.

Americans who don't watch hockey don't know what Edmonton is.

 

[Hatter of the Beach]

Popular as in overal sentiment? I think more people who follow Hockey like McDavid then they do Crosby, who needed a few years to mature.

If youre talking Popular as in known/talked about, then it’s Crosby. I am willing to bet less than 50% of non hockey fan Americans even know what/where Edmonton is

Americans who don't even watch hockey know who Sidney Crosby is.

Americans who don't watch hockey don't know what Edmonton is.

Lol within a minute of each other. Great minds think alike

 

[Machinehead]

Popular as in overal sentiment? I think more people who follow Hockey like McDavid then they do Crosby, who needed a few years to mature.

If youre talking Popular as in known/talked about, then it’s Crosby. I am willing to bet less than 50% of non hockey fan Americans even know what/where Edmonton is



Lol within a minute of each other. Great minds think alike

I ran into a girl one time who was on vacation here and I asked her where she's from, and she said "oh you've probably never heard of it...Calgary?" She didn't know I was a hockey fan. But most people she had talked to on her trip didn't know what it was.

Americans don't know anything about Canada. Americans don't know anything about anything. McDavid plays in what amounts to a niche market here. If he played elsewhere it might be different.

Never been to Edmonton, might be a great place for all I know, but that's the reality of the market.

 

[Machinehead]

And yeah, I know, Gretzky.

But honestly, most casual fans this side of the border remember Gretzky playing for LA.

 

[stepdad gaary]

Popular as in overal sentiment? I think more people who follow Hockey like McDavid then they do Crosby, who needed a few years to mature.

If youre talking Popular as in known/talked about, then it’s Crosby. I am willing to bet less than 50% of non hockey fan Americans even know what/where Edmonton is



Lol within a minute of each other. Great minds think alike

more to do with my general stupidity and lack of geographical knowledge but i am a big hockey fan, know both players but could still not show you edmonton on a map.

 

[NoMessi]

McDavid doesn't have DA LOOK like Crosby had so it hinders McJesus' popularity among teen girls

https://i1.wp.com/www.entertainmentwise.com/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-1-3.jpg?fit=480,360&ssl=1

He had the same sex appeal as Rasmus Dahlin.

 

[Craig Button]

No!
Conner McDavid isn't even more popular than Nathan MacKinnon

 

[solidmotion]

crosby (and ovechkin) entered a league starved of top-end talent, where 100-point scorers were few and far between, and the story was very much one of decline from the glory days of gretzky and lemieux to jagr the prima donna, lindros' constant concussions, a boring trap game dominating the league, etc. so it played into a much bigger narrative about opening the game up again.

mcdavid entered a league where crosby, ovechkin, malkin, etc., are all still great. the game has opened up again in the last couple years but almost by surprise, not as part of a concerted effort to 'save the game' like after the 05 lockout. in other words, i don't think the context was there for mcdavid to be as popular and important as crosby was when he entered the league.

 

[Raistlin]

I used to complain that the league rigs the lottery... being a canuck fan, but I stopped the whining and know the league didn't rig the balls when they let Edmonton scoop up McDavid. and with it, all possible futures to market their golden boy.

 

[The Lucky Pucks]

Coming from a heterosexual male, guys know when another guy is good looking or not even if they dont want to admit it. Crosbys a good looking dude, mcdavid mmmm not so much.

 

[Todd from Leduc]

Trust me, I live in Leduc and McDavid is 2x more popular than Crosby was. I’ve seen 2 McDavid tatts on gals. Nobody’s got a Crosby tattoo.

 

[The Lucky Pucks]

Trust me, I live in Leduc and McDavid is 2x more popular than Crosby was. I’ve seen 2 McDavid tatts on gals. Nobody’s got a Crosby tattoo.

I was curious so i googled sidney crosby tatoo and this came up

 

[kladorf2005]

Trust me, I live in Leduc and McDavid is 2x more popular than Crosby was. I’ve seen 2 McDavid tatts on gals. Nobody’s got a Crosby tattoo.

Now Leduc is a place I've never heard of before. But I could surmise that it's probably in Alberta based on context clues

(I live in Virginia, FWIW)

 

[Todd from Leduc]

Now Leduc is a place I've never heard of before. But I could surmise that it's probably in Alberta based on context clues

(I live in Virginia, FWIW)

It’s a wealthy suburb of Edmonton

 

[MadLuke]

Not really close for many reasons all cited.

The lock-out helped Crosby hype quite a bit, not much to talk for a whole year but is lottery, there was a really big passing the torch of those 90s stars accelerated by the down year, is best ever junior team Canada was bigger and more covered with no NHL that year, he entered the league on Mario Lemieux line when people was starving for hockey and the new rules with the shootouts/new players, that season beginning hype (Forsberg on the Flyers, Lemieux-Crosby and so on) was the biggest I can remember, I would imagine all game forecast was showing Crosby first skating and first moment over their actual game and not just mine.

And then right in the first months, Rookie of the month battle start between him and Ovechkin, perfect storyline that the NHL milked a lot, both playing in the east and in good market.

The level of hype made him a controversial player a little bit, with haters (like Lindros and Lemieux had) and all that come with that level of popularity and style of play/official talks, there is more consensus and thus indifference toward McDavid.

How much the league was starving for new stars vs now being an other big reason, but playing in the playoff is a really big difference.

Crosby had 2 Stanley cup finals and a cup at McDavid current age, almost everything in hockey write itself in the playoff outside the local fanbase, fans do not tend to watch that many game in a year not involving their own teams (regular fans do not watch that many regular hockey season that much and 0 game not involving their teams), if you want to really become a star league fanbase wise, you usually need to do it in the playoff when people are actually watching you.

In the west it is less easy and having played only 13 playoffs games with 9 points to Crosby 49 games with 63 points by the same age, that change the league wide visibility specially among casual fans quite a bit.

Crosby/Ovechkin were also probably the first nhl stars of the youtube age (youtube started february 2005, during the lockout) and were the stars when social media started to be massive and common around 2008-2011, there is something about the "first" stars on a medium that make them to be replace, the generation that had the first hockey player stars on the radio probably had a special place for those firsts one, same for the TV one and now with the Internet.

 

[habdynasty]

Bill Cosby is pretty big in merica.

 

[WillTheThrill]

Nope. If McDavid played in Toronto then maybe.

 

[Leafidelity]

Between playing for the Oilers, and not having an Olympics, McDavid just hasn't played enough important games.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

Outside of Canada, he is virtually unknown, Crosby, Kane, Ovechkin and even TJ Oshie are better known than McDavid.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

I ran into a girl one time who was on vacation here and I asked her where she's from, and she said "oh you've probably never heard of it...Calgary?" She didn't know I was a hockey fan. But most people she had talked to on her trip didn't know what it was.

Americans don't know anything about Canada. Americans don't know anything about anything. McDavid plays in what amounts to a niche market here. If he played elsewhere it might be different.

Never been to Edmonton, might be a great place for all I know, but that's the reality of the market.

Did you get her number

 

[Avelanche]

in the hockey world yes, mcdavid was hyped years before the draft. but crosby was much more popular generally at least in the states.

 

[Future GOAT]

Outside of Canada, he is virtually unknown, Crosby, Kane, Ovechkin and even TJ Oshie are better known than McDavid.

Hockey players are like basic math over there and even these guys you listed are virtually unknown in the majority of merica.