Alexander Ovechkin left alone with Wayne Gretzky

Alexander Ovechkin came in second on the list of the best NHL scorers of all time. The 802nd goal, scored by the outstanding Russian forward of the Washington Capitals club, allowed him to get ahead of Gordie Howe in the total number of goals scored in the regular season. Now Ovechkin will storm the top of the sniper hierarchy, occupied by yet another Canadian legend – Wayne Gretzky. And it seems that waiting for her to submit to him is not so long left – just a couple of years.

Alexander Ovechkin was once again in the spotlight over the weekend thanks to yet another conquered statistical milestone. A few days ago, North America enjoyed celebrating his 800th regular NHL goal. Now the cause for celebration was two goals scored by Ovechkin in his Washington home game against the Winnipeg Jets.

The first took place at the very beginning. The second – in the end, when, with a score of 1: 3, Winnipeg, trying to recoup, replaced the goalkeeper with a sixth field player and left the gate empty, under curious circumstances. In fact, another Russian forward of Washington, Evgeny Kuznetsov, had a great opportunity to make a scoring shot in that episode. But he preferred to contrive and give a pass to a partner who was nearby. Kuznetsov later, smiling, said that he understood: if he had left it himself, half the world would have hated him.

And the thing is that the public, of course, at that moment was waiting for the goal of Alexander Ovechkin. It meant that the Russian striker had conquered another notable career milestone. Having excelled in the first period, Ovechkin shared second place in the list of the best NHL snipers with the great Canadian Gordie Howe, and having received a gift from Kuznetsov, he was ahead of him by a goal, deserving a standing ovation from the audience and a demonstration of a pre-recorded video congratulations from Gordie Howe’s son Mark, a famous defender in the past .

Howe Jr., as it turned out, was not at all upset by the fact that his father, who had finished playing hockey at the age of fifty, and the idol of many generations of Canadian fans of the game, was still outrun by a hockey player from Russia.

On the contrary, he seemed to be glad that nothing prevented Ovechkin from doing this, and in an interview with ESPN he willingly explained why he was worried about him and why he considers the Washington striker a hockey unique. “You see, in my life I have seen a lot of people who can send the puck into the net in a way that no one can. But over time, instead of hitting the corner, she began to hit the post. But this is not happening with Ovi yet, ”said Mark Howe, and it was not necessary to chew very carefully what he had in mind. Alexandra Ovechkin is 37 years old, but he does not at all look like a typical veteran on ice, content with little.

Now on the agenda is his hunt for the most important sniper frontier.

Only one person remained ahead of Alexander Ovechkin in the ranking – another Canadian legend, Wayne Gretzky. He has 894 goals.

Until relatively recently, Gretzky’s position seemed absolutely impregnable. Well, since Gordie Howe himself, with his unparalleled sports longevity, he left far behind, then the rest have nothing to dream of storming. However, it is now quite obvious that if some insanely bad circumstances do not intervene in the pursuit of Alexander Ovechkin, the leader in the classification will change pretty soon.

The reason to think so is in particular Alexander Ovechkin, noticed, of course, not only by Mark Howe. The Russian striker with age, adjusting the style of play, practically does not reduce efficiency. In the current regular season, he already has 22 goals in 36 matches. In the projection for the entire distance of the regular season out of 82 meetings, this is exactly fifty goals, that is, an indicator familiar to the young Ovechkin. If he does not slow down, then he will get close to Gretzky next season, and in 2024 he will be ahead of him. At the same time, Washington signed a contract with him until 2026, which means that Alexander Ovechkin is not going to say goodbye to hockey until the record falls.

Alexey Dospekhov