Russian eight hundred – Newspaper Kommersant No. 233 (7434) dated 12/15/2022

Lionel Messi, whose phenomenal game helped the Argentina national team defeat the Croats 3-0 late Tuesday evening and reach the final of the World Cup in Qatar, still had to share the glory of the main athlete of the environment with domestic hockey player Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin’s first hat-trick in the current NHL championship, made in a match in which his Washington Capitals defeated the Chicago Blackhawks away – 7: 3, allowed him to reach the mark of 800 goals scored in the regular season. Before the Russian sniper, she submitted only to two of the brightest Canadian legends – Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe. Moreover, Howe is about to be left behind Ovechkin in the list of the best snipers in the league of all time.

Alexander Ovechkin after this match was, of course, snapped up by the most prestigious North American TV channels and with pleasure repeated understandable words into the cameras aimed at him – about “too special evening in my life”, that he understands that something grandiose had just happened, not only for him, but “for the whole of hockey.” And it was impossible to argue with the last thesis. It was confirmed at least by the reaction to the third goal of the Russian, the same one, the 800th. It was the final period, desperately in need of points, “Chicago” was still losing not so much – 2: 4, attacking a lot, and Ovechkin, in fact, killed his hopes of achieving a favorable outcome after all.

But instead of mourning over a missed chance, someone else’s luck, people in the stands of the Chicago Palace rose to their feet, applauded, roared with delight and threw caps on the ice: this is how it is customary in hockey to celebrate hat-tricks.

And after the end of the match, two Blackhawks celebrities, two club veterans – Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews – specially drove up to Ovechkin in the center of the court to express their admiration for him.

Of course, everyone has been waiting for this moment. ESPN in the fall, he even started a special “counter” section on the hockey page of his website, which almost always opens it, dedicated exclusively to Alexander Ovechkin’s hunt for a fantastically beautiful figure, which only two Canadian legends had succeeded before him. Gordie Howe scored the first 800 goals in the NHL regular season in February 1980, he was then 51 years old. He was followed in March 1994 by 33-year-old Wayne Gretzky. Now, in December 2022, it’s the turn of the 37-year-old Russian phenom to hit the milestone in the 1,305th game of a North American career that started 17 years ago in Washington.

At first, the “counter” replenished slowly. But in recent days, everything has changed, and Alexander Ovechkin began to approach the chic frontier at a rapid pace. True, he gained momentum largely due to circumstances. Ovechkin scored in each of Washington’s three games leading up to Chicago against the Philadelphia Flyers, Seattle Cracken and Winnipeg Jets, the Philadelphians twice. But he scored all these four goals in the end into an empty net, after the losing opponent, in an attempt to escape, replaced the goalkeeper with the sixth field player. It devalued the chase a little. But Alexander Ovechkin’s hat-trick, the first of the season and the 29th in his career in the NHL, cannot be faulted – the “cleanest” hat-trick. All goals are due to their own talent. In the first case – unexpectedly, without preparation, to throw from under the defender, in the second and third – to find yourself at the right moment at the right point of the “patch”, the great instinct of the king of snipers.

Now the “counter” will switch to a different mode. It is no longer round and catchy numbers that are relevant, but a place in the sniper hierarchy of all time.

In terms of the total number of goals in NHL matches, that is, including play-off games, Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Gordie Howe in Chicago: he had 872 of them, Howe will always have 869. the same main indicator) the Canadian is still ahead – by only one point. And this means that very soon the “hot” Russian in December will overtake him. Maybe even Thursday at home against the Dallas Stars.

And after that, the top of the rankings, Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals, will be on the agenda. And there is no doubt that Alexander Ovechkin, despite his veteran age, is capable of storming it. Especially given that it seems that his entire club is striving to ensure that Gretzky’s achievement is beaten, and Washington owner Ted Leonsis even warned that he would try to avoid a radical restructuring of the team at all costs in order not to deprive his superstar of comfortable conditions. And this despite the fact that such a restructuring suggests itself.

Alexander Ovechkin has goals that are closer. For example, he needs to pull Washington up, which, although it has played out in the winter, having already won six games in a row, due to fall breakdowns, is still not included in the “play-off zone”: it is sixth in the tight Metropolitan division. And you can also try to win the tenth Maurice Richard Trophy – a prize for the best sniper of the season. Back in November, it seemed that Ovechkin was not destined to claim it, but today, after his December “explosion”, the situation is already a little different. The Russian has now exactly 20 goals, and he closes the top five of the sniper race. And to Connor McDavid, who heads it from the Edmonton Oilers, the distance is decent, but, whatever one may say, not cosmic – six goals.

Alexey Dospekhov