by When Alex Ovechkin Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 career goals breaks, he will achieve what many considered simply impossible in sport.
Ovechkin came closer to Gretzky’s record on Saturday and scored his 887. Career ethetic in 5-1-drubbing by San Jose in Washington Capitals.
This means that the 39-year-old Russian star is now only eight goals away from handing over Gretzky’s all-time brand, a total that has long been considered inviolable.
“I was able to tell you 10 years or even eight years ago that one of us who played the game in the Gretzky era would have said:” I think it is not possible, “said Hall of Famer and former teammate of Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, recently.
Gretzky was considered a “unique” talent, but his era also recorded higher evaluation rates; The average 1980s with significantly more points per game than the closer games of the 2000s and 2010s.
But Ovechkin’s remarkable production owes its extraordinary talent more than shifts in the way the game is played.
His climb began long before starting up skills in the NHL. In 1985 he was in Moscow as the son of a professional footballer and Soviet women basketball -medalist for women of the Olympic team of women in the Russian Superleague with Dynamo Moscow and made professional debut at the age of 16.
His arrival was first selected by the capitals in the draft of 2004.
In this rookie season he scored 52 goals, scored the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year and took third place in the league. It was a harbinger of what would come.
What distinguishes Ovechkin is his sheer ability to put the puck online. “It’s his shot,” said Gretzky himself in an NHL.com interview in October 2024.
“Take a look at people like Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy. You get these options. You don’t miss the network. Ovi … never miss the network. And that separates a great scorer from good scoring.”
Ovechkin’s signature one-timer from the left face-off-circle-known as his “office”-Hat goalkeeper terrorized that it is about for two decades, but there is nothing you can do about it.
– rating machine –
While Gretzky is both a playmaker and a goal scorer War-Er with 1,963 compared to Ovechkin’s 718 far and far from the all-time assistant leader-the Russian is a pure goal machine.
The proposal at the beginning of his career that he was a “puck hog” that was hockey equivalent of a “greedy” striker in football, in an interview from 2008, a characteristic and unveiled answer from Ovechkin came out:
Nobody has complained since then, especially not in Washington, where he smashed Franchise records and led the capitals to their only Stanley Cup title in 2018.
But those in the game say that Ovechkin’s game gives more than his fatal shot like reading situations.
“Hockey players of his level do things that no one else does,” said the head coach of Capitals, Spencer Carbery, to Russian Zeitungsport Express.
“Let us take the way he perceives the analysis of moments. I can show him a bit and expect a reaction, and he sees it very differently. So you learn a lot about what makes him a great player,” he said.
– political balancing act – –
The only criticism with which Ovechkin was confronted was concentrated by the ice and for his obvious support for the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, especially since the invasion of Ukraine.
Ovechkin founded “Putinner” to support the Russian president in the 2018 elections, and his profile picture on his Instagram account is a picture of him with Putin.
When asked about the Ukrainklieg in 2022, Ovechkin asked “No more War”. But when he was asked about Putin, his usual openness was absent.
“Well, he is my president. But as I said I am not in politics. I am an athlete and hope that everything will be done soon,” said Ovechkin at the time. “I am Russian. It is something I can’t control. It’s not in my hands. I hope it will end soon.”
However, it is also noticeable that Ovechkin, who spends all of his summer in Russia at home, never made a public explanation to support the war, even though he knew that such a step was praised by Putin and his supporters.
Regardless of his motivation, Ovechkin goes a thin line from the ice rink, but there is no question that the NHL is muted to celebrate its performance.
“Some people have suggested that because Alex is Russian, that this should somehow be marginalized,” said the deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly at the beginning of the season.
“We could no longer agree. He has been a great ambassador for our game for 20 years.”
SEV/RCW
