Turned into an interesting topic, my 2 cents... People tend to turn retired players into gods I've found, regardless of how good they were, they become twice as good once they are retired for 15 years. I watched Gretzky quite a bit on tv and in person growing up and he was the best offensive player I've ever seen play - his puckhandling and vision were better than anybody I've ever seen. He was also not an exceptional two way player, and his physical game was downright weak, he couldn't protect the puck along the boards to save his life. If he played in the modern, instigator penalty era where two way is expected he would be a grease spot and/or definately wouldn't get the ice time he got.
Also back in the 80s, you could load up a team, in the cap era a team like the 80s Oilers would never exist. Gretzky's supporting cast was amazing, and as others have said, it was much easier to score in that era, goals per game were way higher.
Crosby doesn't have Gretzky's vision, but he is a more complete player in every other way and has faced tougher competition, better coaching and a much more defensive brand of hockey all with a worse supporting cast.
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