As I’m writing this (thank you, spring cold and technical glitch for delaying this musing), I’m watching a late regular season NHL game not involving a team I have a rooting interest in. Normally, I’d be as unattentive as most people I know would be this time of year. But I’m a far bigger fan of history, and Alex Ovechkin is on the verge of making it.
The Washington Capitals have had a pretty fantastic season already as a direct result of their longtime captain ‘s renaissance. For a team that barely qualified for last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs by the narrowest of margins–a last-day squeaker over Detroit to claim the second and final Eastern Conference wild card and fourth place in the overloaded Metropolitan Division–they have just about clinched top conference honors this year. And last night, as CBS SPORTS’ prolific Chris Bengel described, was just another example of how they’ve mutually clicked:
(A)t age 39, Ovechkin is on the verge of becoming the NHL’s all-time goals leader, and he can pass Gretzky’s mark of 894 before the end of season. The Capitals(‘) standout currently has 891 career goals after he scored his 38th of the season Tuesday when he tapped home a beautiful Dylan Strome pass on a first-period power play against the Bruins. Washington eventually held on for a 4-3 win.
THE ATHLETIC’s talented young duo of Sean Gentille and Fluto Shinzawa added further context:
Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco spoke Monday about how Ovechkin is getting creative with how he is scoring his goals. “If you watch him lately, he’s not just sitting there anymore, Sacco said. “They scored a goal (Sunday), he moved to the top of the power play. It creates some confusion. Because you’re sitting over there on the elbow, you’re looking to take him away. All of a sudden, he’s at the top. He takes a one-timer, and a guy tips it at the front of the net. They’ve found ways to move him around to different areas.”
At this point, shocking as it sounds, Ovechkin falling short before the end of the season would be something of a surprise. In fact, four goals in eight games would represent a step back from his rate of production this season. In 58 games, he has scored at a 53-goal pace.
It’s a pace that actually channels many memories I have of seeing Gretzky in person for an extended period during a period where the American sports world finally woke up to what harder core hockey fans already knew–why he was called “The Great One”. Thanks to the fact that I worked for a company that reserved season tickets for the Los Angeles Kings despite having only a small regional office otherwise filled with folks who hated the game, I saw plenty of regular season and playoff games during a season where he lead to LA to a then-unprecedented conference title where they upset his favorite boyhood team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, before running out of gas against his country’s most successful one, the Montreal Canadiens.
It makes the fact that USA TODAY’s Jason Anderson felt the need to drop an article like this this week to educate those who never had such privilege as to exactly why Gretzky had that monicker:
“The Great One” was a radically different player than anyone the NHL had seen when he burst onto the scene in the 1980s, and he did so in an era where defensive tactics placed more emphasis on hard hits than denying space and opportunities. Gretzky’s time with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and New York Rangers saw him rack up four Stanley Cup wins and nine Hart Trophies as the NHL’s MVP.
To this point, the Caps have but one Cup, a 2018 triumph that denied the Vegas Golden Knights the ultimate inaugural season as they somehow parlayed an expansion draft crew into a conference title. But this year at least is setting up to be another strong run. And you’d better believe the good folks at ESPN and TNT are rooting for just that. Virtually every game they can get their hands on until season’s end is being covered nationally, including the one I’m watching right now. And, sorry to say, some may be hate-watching along with me.
Two more excellent ATHLETIC writers, Dan Robson and Rob Rossi, dropped an excellent and lengthier piece yesterday that brought to light the mixed emotions many North Americans have about the prospect of the all-time pro hockey goal-scoring record (the NHL has generously included Gordie Howe’s inflated WHA totals in his final tally that currently has him second to Gretzky) falling to someone who can provoke this sort of commentary:
He is the most famous Russian in Washington, a whole in two parts. Everything he does on the ice, and everything he says off it, carries an extraordinary weight, well beyond a game. When he is not in D.C., Ovechkin spends his time at a home in Florida or at a country house on the outskirts of Moscow. Any return he makes to Russia is a big deal. His impact on sports, fashion and culture can’t be exaggerated. He is a national hero.
But the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts a shadow for many over Ovechkin’s chase for the record. Ovechkin has publicly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his career. The profile picture on Ovechkin’s Instagram account, followed by 1.6 million people, is an image of Ovechkin and Putin together. He campaigned for Putin on social media ahead of Russia’s 2018 election. “Everybody is following him right now,” says Viktor Kozlov, who played alongside Ovechkin during his early years in Washington.
“He’s my president,” Ovechkin said, when asked if he still supports Putin. “I’m Russian, right?
Yep, he sure is. And as if he was in sync with what’s been written both pro and con in recent days, he scored goal #892 on a power play in the final minute of the second period in a game in which they had been shut out by Carolina to that point. So much for the pace that predicted he’d break the record on the fringe of New York City against the Islanders; he seems hell-bent on doing in in front of the hometown fans as soon as Friday night, where the league-worst Blackhawks will provide the “competition”. Andat this writing he’s just a hat trick away from rewriting history.
To which I can only console any Canadian who may still have misgivings with this: At least an American won’t hold the record.
Courage…