Gretzky was hyped and promoted as the next great thing before he even made it to the NHL. There is no difference. I blame the league more for not showing off their other great players rather than Crosby himself. He's just a dumb kid at this point.
Zetterberg was taken 210th in the 99 draft which was one of the worst drafts ever. There was an article about it recently in the Hockey News. Alot of scouts and GM's lost their jobs for overlooking that guy. As for the slashing, every team goes after their opponents injuries. My favorite part was watching Detroit put up 3 PP goals in the second period instead of retaliating. That was good stuff.