When measured against his contemporaries, Sidney Crosby, more often than not, has the edge.

But there is one area that the likes of Ryan Getzlaf and Patrice Bergeron and the Sedin twins can snag some bragging rights over Crosby. The same team-based metric in which Alex Ovechkin reigns supreme.

All have claimed a division title more often than the Pittsburgh Penguins have over Crosby’s 15 completed seasons.

That mirrors the history of the franchise at large. The Penguins’ ratio of division titles (eight) to league championships (five) might be the best in major professional sports.

For perspective, Ovechkin has 10 division titles with the Washington Capitals. Getzlaf’s Anaheim Ducks and the Vancouver Canucks of Henrik and Daniel Sedin won six division titles each during Crosby’s career. Bergeron’s Boston Bruins have five.

Despite winning the Stanley Cup three times in the Crosby era, the Penguins have just four division titles — and none since 2014. That’s a tradeoff they gladly would make relative to the Capitals’ active streak of five consecutive division titles (but only one Cup).

But with two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Penguins are in quite the race for the East division title with Washington, Boston and the New York Islanders.

While acknowledging the obvious that everyone would choose the Cup over the division, is claiming the latter worth celebrating?

“(A division title) gives you home-ice advantage. That’s the biggest (benefit) for me,” defenseman Kris Letang said Friday, “to be able to start a series in your building and be able to set a tone right from the two games.

“As far as having a banner in the rafters, it’s always cool to see those and know that you were a part of those teams.”

In part a nod to their championship success — no team has more Stanley Cups over the past 4 1/2 decades — the Penguins recognize their division titles in the PPG Paints Arena rafters by combining all onto one banner. Maybe in other cities, finishing in first place might be celebrated more.

“We’d like to finish as high as we can, sure,” coach Mike Sullivan said, “because it puts you in the best possible position to be successful for the ultimate goal … which is to win a Stanley Cup.”

Sullivan has won the Cup more often over his parts of seven seasons as a head coach (twice) than he has won a division (once, in 2004 with Boston).

Sullivan can add a first regular-season first-place finish to his resume with the Penguins if they can outplay the Washington, the Islanders and Boston down the stretch. The Capitals (64 points) have a one-point lead over the Penguins and Islanders, with the Bruins four points out. Boston, though, has two games in hand, making the race a virtual dead heat.

Defenseman John Marino and wing Kasperi Kapanen termed the importance of winning the division as “huge.”

Marino pointed to the home-ice advantage the first-place team will enjoy during each of the first two rounds of the playoffs.

“We want to do everything we can in order to get that,” Marino said.

For Kapanen, the benefit of a division title is more intangible.

“Just to kind of set the tone for everyone that we’re a great hockey team, and we’re plyaing really well,” he said.

After Saturday’s home game against New Jersey, the Penguins host Boston twice and then play two games at Washington before ending the season with a pair of two-game series against also-rans Philadelphia and Buffalo.

By mid-July, we will know if the Penguins won a sixth Cup. But by mid-May, we’ll know if they won a ninth division title.

“We’re right there,” Crosby said, “(but) I don’t think we want to look too far ahead. We’re just taking it a game at a time. The important thing is to win games and get points. And if (an East title) is the case, that’s the case. We are just trying to make sure we play well here and see where that puts us.”

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.

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