Paul Bissonette gives his honest opinion about 'animosity' between long-time rivals Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin

Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have dominated the NHL for the last 20 seasons. They have both earned numerous accolades and records, and Ovechkin is chasing the all-time goals mark.

As two stars of the sport who have always been on different teams, they have developed an individual rivalry, one that has since faded in their later seasons. Paul Bissonette discussed it on Tuesday's episode of the "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast.

"I don't think that they carry the animosity towards each other like they once did," Bissonnette said (1:53:15). "Not in a bad way. It's 'cause the media and everybody was pinning them up against one another, like, who was going to be better, like, who was going to win the Stanley Cups, like, you know, who was going to be the better No. 1 overall pick?"

Bissonnette believes the media played a role in building the rivalry but the Pittsburgh Penguins center and his counterpart have achieved much of what everyone expected from them.

He believes Crosby and Ovechkin are "dead even" and that the Washington Capitals left winger is going to have the goals record but Crosby also has records and three Stanley Cups.

As far as the eventual breaking of Wayne Gretzky's mark, Bissonnette thinks Crosby has achieved enough to not be remotely jealous and wouldn't "mind being there" to see his longtime rival score the historic goal.

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Alex Ovechkin deflects from historic goal race

Alex Ovechkin scored the 890th goal of his illustrious career on Sunday. He is only five away from the record held by Wayne Gretzky; however, it came in a loss.

Alex Ovechkin now has 890 goals (image credit: IMAGN)

The Capitals were defeated 8-5 by the Buffalo Sabres and that was all Ovechkin was worried about.

"Right now, we lost three in a row," Ovechkin said after the game, via ESPN. "It's a good thing it happens right now and not in the playoffs, but we just have to bounce back and find a way to win the games."

Washington forward Aliaksei Protas was more than willing to talk about the record. He described it as "insane" and said that he probably couldn't get that many goals in the video game NHL 25.