Sidney Crosby, coming off Stanley Cup and World Cup of Hockey titles, has to top any list of NHL players to watch this season.The Pittsburgh Penguins superstar may never approach the 36-goal, 120-point season he had a decade ago when he won his first of two Hart Trophies as NHL MVP. Crosby can, though, strike a balance between being patient with the puck and aggressive with or without it when needed.He just wins, said Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, who has coached Crosby at the Olympics and World Cup. Sid is unbelievable.Crosby has been diagnosed with a concussion and his availability with the season coming up fast was unknown Monday. Heres a look at some other players to watch in the talent-rich league when the season starts this week:ALEX OVECHKINAs a scorer, the 31-year-old Washington Capitals winger isnt showing any signs of slowing down. Ovechkin had 50 goals last season, reaching the milestone for the third straight year. He won his fourth straight and league-record sixth overall Richard Trophy as the NHLs top scorer. No one else has won it more than twice since the 1998-99 season when the trophy was first awarded.PATRICK KANEThe Chicago Blackhawks winger won his first Hart Trophy by easily surpassing his previous career highs with 46 goals and 106 points. Kane couldnt celebrate the accomplishment too much because the Blackhawks were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round after hoisting the Cup in 2015 for the third time in six years. Kane and Co. will be fired up to make another run.CONNOR MCDAVIDIf the 19-year-old captain can stay healthy, no one will be surprised if he has a 100-point season with the Edmonton Oilers. McDavid, the No. 1 overall pick last year, had 48 points in 45 games during his injury-shortened rookie season.?The smooth-skating center looked like one of the games greats at the World Cup.AUSTON MATTHEWSThe Maple Leafs have a reason for hope, for a change, because of the 6-foot-3, 216-pound center they drafted No. 1 overall. Matthews appeared as if he belonged on the ice with the best hockey players on the planet last month at the World Cup, perhaps giving him a boost of confidence as an NHL rookie.P.K. SUBBANNashville acquired a motivated player in a blockbuster trade last summer, adding the 2013 Norris Trophy-winning defenseman and sending captain Shea Webber to Montreal. Subban scored a career-low six goals last season for the Canadiens and will get every opportunity to bounce back with the Predators.CAREY PRICEMontreals franchise and fans likely breathed a sigh of relief during the World Cup when it was clear Price is healthy and still one of the games best goaltenders after missing more than 10 months with a knee injury. With Price and Weber, the Canadiens will be tough to score against.BRENT BURNSThe reigning Western Conference-champion San Jose Sharks may want to give the gap-tooth, big-bearded defenseman a deal before he becomes a free agent next summer. If they dont, Burns may take his on- and off-the-ice act to a team that will pay him perhaps $7 million to $8 million a year with a long-term contract.BEN BISHOPThe Tampa Bay Lightning might move Bishop, who is entering the last season of his contract, before the trading deadline this season because they wont want to lose him to Las Vegas in the expansion draft next summer. Tampa Bay appeared to make a plan for the future in net last summer when it signed 22-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy to a three-year extension.---Follow Larry Lage at http://www.twitter.com/larrylage and follow his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/larry-lage---This story has been corrected to show that Subban won 2013 Norris Trophy. A.J. Green Jersey . Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013. Germaine Pratt Bengals Jersey . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. http://www.bengalsrookiestore.com/Bengals-Drew-Sample-Jersey/ . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Germaine Pratt Jersey Anthony Munoz Womens Jersey . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Cuban heavyweight Mijain Lopez once again bested Turkish rival Riza Kayaalp -- this time with an Olympic performance that put him in the company of wrestling great Alexander Karelin.Lopez beat Kayaalp 6-0 Monday at the Rio de Janeiro Games to capture his third Greco-Roman gold medal.Lopez joins Russian great Karelin and Carl Westergren of Sweden as the only wrestlers with three Olympic titles in the classic discipline.Lopez, who lost to Kayaalp in last years world finals, scored in only 15 seconds to essentially seal the match.Its just a tremendous honor because of the level that (Karelin) was at, Lopez said. Now, this is my time.Russian wrestler Davit Chakvetadze also won gold, finishing first in the 85-kilogram weight class to give Russia its second Olympic title in as many days.Though the heavyweight field was fairly deep, an Olympic rematch between Lopez and Kayaalp seemed inevitable. No one came close to threatening either one of them in the preliminaries.Lopez began his round with a win over Heike Nabi, who he also beat in the gold medal match at the London Games.In the semifinals, Lopez drew Sergey Semenoov -- a two-time junior world champion from Russia and perhaps the wrestler wholl someday replace Lopez and Kayaalp at the top of the sport.ddddddddddddLopez let Semenov know his time had not yet come, dispatching him 3-0. Semenov later rallied to win bronze by pinning Nabi.For me, its practically gold, Semenov said. I wanted this so much, and I got it.Kayaalp was perhaps even more impressive though, recording a fall and a pair of technical falls to cruise into the final.But Lopezs intensity was apparent from the moment the horn sounded for the last match. He flipped Kayaalp onto his back for a four-pointer only 15 seconds in and made it 5-0 less than a minute later.My strategy was to counter his efforts and go with it, Lopez said.Chakvetadze rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat top-ranked Ukrainian Zhan Beleniuk 9-2. Beleniuk now has two losses this year -- and both came against Chakvetadze.I am the happiest man on earth, Chakvetadze said.Javid Hamzatau of Belarus and Denis Kudla of Germany won bronze. ' ' '