NHL experiencing new highs with Crosby and Co.

National Hockey League fans are witnessing some the best hockey in nearly 20 years. Not… National Hockey League fans are witnessing some the best hockey in nearly 20 years. Not since the days of Gretzky, Lemieux, Trottier, Messier and Roy has the game experienced such a talented mix of youth and experience at once.

With the epic Calder Memorial Trophy race for league rookie of the year last season, fans are just beginning to catch a glimpse of what Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin can bring to the table.

Crosby displays strength and finesse, while Ovechkin brings size, grit, power and a shot that can’t be matched throughout the world.

Crosby leads the league in scoring, despite missing some games due to a groin injury, and Ovechkin comes in a distant second.

Ovechkin’s heavy shot and sick power moves have him atop the league’s goal scoring category, while Crosby’s vision and crisp passes have him leading the league in assists. This matchup looks as if it’ll be here for years to come.

But youth isn’t the only story of today’s NHL. Players like Joe Sakic, 37, and Jaromir Jagr, 35, though slowed a little by injuries, have played the same high-tempo game we have come to expect out of them in their combined 34 years in the NHL.

Sakic still displays one of the league’s finest wrist shots and is revered as one of the game’s top mentors and leaders, as was evident by his 12th All-Star Game appearance this year.

Jagr, who was just chasing a dream 16 years ago when the Penguin’s picked him fifth overall in 1990, is still beyond a point-per-game player, and there is no foreseeable retirement for this guy. He has been at the top of the league in scoring since he broke in and should be on cruise control until retirement.

This guy still has the drive. He has the drive to compete in this league at its high level and is contributing at that same high level.

Players like Crosby and Ovechkin will lead the new-aged players, while guys like Sakic and Jagr will continue to contribute at their high levels, all while leading these mere kids in the NHL.

Today’s skaters have quickened the game and increased scoring. All the while, the league’s elite goaltenders have stood their ground and maintained career-best numbers throughout this recent scoring explosion.

Guys like Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek, J.S. Giguere, Vesa Toskala and Marc-Andre Fleury are playing lights out in all of their own ways. Brodeur and Hasek are still at the tops of their games as they near retirement age for the normal player.

But Brodeur, 34, and Hasek, 42, aren’t normal. They’re machines. Brodeur could quite possibly be the best goaltender of all time.

He has accomplished everything humanly possible for a goaltender, as evident with his three Stanley Cups, an Olympic Gold for Canada, nine All-Star Game appearances, two Vezina Trophies as the league’s top goalie, four Jennings Trophies by having the lowest goals against average in the league and one Calder Memorial Trophy, for once being the league’s top rookie.

Not to mention Brodeur currently leads the NHL in goals against average.

With Hasek, there is the same relentless style that he has played for his nearly two decades in the league. The acrobatic flips and twists that made him famous during that 1999 Stanley Cup Final against the Dallas Stars are still part of his game as he leads the Detroit Red Wings into a new, younger era.

Giguere, Toskala and Fleury, on the other hand, are all younger than 30 and are just beginning their stardom between the pipes in the NHL.

Fleury and his bright yellow leg pads seem to be making highlight reels all across sporting networks in North America as he is quickly fulfilling the Penguins’ hopes that they had for him when they drafted him No. 1 in 2003. His reflexes are unmatched throughout the league, and he is rising among the ranks.

Also bursting onto the scene as of late is Toskala, who currently ranks fourth in GAA, and has 20-plus wins for the second season in a row, as he is backstopping for one of the NHL’s highest-powered offenses in San Jose. Despite his small stature, Toskala comes up big when need be, and he has the numbers to back that up.

All of these guys make the league what it is today. And youth and experience will continue to dominate through the future of the NHL.