daver
Registered User
It's not just about PPG. It's the fact that OV led the league in PPG AND GPG, being #1 in points and goals, top-10 in assists, #4 in +/- , beating the next highest PPG by 0.14 and the next highest GPG by 0.15, while dishing out 200+ hits a season. Offensively, he was unmatched.
Since you like bringing up leads over #10:
GPG and goals lead over #10: 0.27 and 64 goals
PPG and points lead over #10: 0.38 and 75 points
He was just on another level. Usually the players who run the league in terms of PPG and points don't have the goals edge over others. Ovechkin brought the best of both worlds
Whatever level you think he was on, he was not on the level of the Big Four. There is no basis for making that comparison.
As for another level, I guess if you want to focus only on the regular season. Two long Cup runs by both Malkin and Crosby along with the elite RS success, to say nothing about what we know they did outside of this specific three year stretch, make that claim a minority one. Most would say their peak level of offensive play was quite close, it just happened at different times.