There are numerous spectacular issues about Alex Ovechkin’s climb to the highest of the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leaderboard. The primary, and most evident, is simply the precise quantity itself.
Scoring 895 objectives within the NHL is, fairly truthfully, an absurd accomplishment. Solely three gamers have ever topped the 800-goal mark in NHL historical past. Solely eight are over 700 objectives.
By the point Ovechkin’s profession ends, he’ll seemingly go nicely past 900 objectives, relying on how lengthy he desires to play.
Scoring that many objectives over a 20-year stretch required at minimal a 45-goal-per-season tempo, which is sort of tough to understand. It didn’t even appear to be it was potential till this season and proper up till he truly moved forward of Wayne Gretzky’s file.
It took a tremendous mixture of consistency, sturdiness, expertise and even some luck to easily keep wholesome sufficient to maintain going.
However that doesn’t even start to scratch the floor on how spectacular this truly is.
To actually take within the accomplishment, it’s essential contemplate how just about every little thing in Ovechkin’s profession was stacked in opposition to him when it got here to truly getting the file. That features the league itself and the best way the sport was performed, to unexpected world circumstances, to the NHL’s perpetual labor stoppages, to even his personal crew and the narratives surrounding his model of play.
Ultimately, none of it mattered. He has simply been an excessive amount of and too unstoppable.
Whereas Gretzky performed the majority of his profession within the highest-scoring period the NHL has ever seen, Ovechkin performed the majority of his prime years in one of many lowest-scoring eras.
Between 2010 and 2017, the NHL re-entered a dead-puck period the place offense was utterly sucked out of the game. Every little thing was about construction, methods, protection, elite goaltending and a lower in power-play alternatives that dropped goal-scoring to insanely low ranges.
For context on that: Within the post-Authentic-Six period (beginning with the 1967 season), nine of the 15-lowest goal-scoring seasons in the NHL came during Ovechkin’s career, together with six of the 10-lowest. Most of these seasons have been within the mid-2010s when Ovechkin was at his peak.
It was not an offensive period. It was not an period constructed for goal-scoring. There have been years the place no person aside from him got here near 50 objectives. Solely a handful of gamers may even method 40 objectives.
It was round that point that the Capitals — in the midst of a number of postseason disappointments — tried to develop into a extra defensive crew and tried to get Ovechkin to sacrifice offense within the identify of being a extra full, two-way participant. It was a catastrophe for everyone, together with each the Capitals and Ovechkin himself.
When it wasn’t playing-style points, it was the truth that he merely missed numerous potential video games. Not due to damage, however as a result of the NHL misplaced a big variety of video games to the Covid-19 pandemic and a number of lockouts.
The 2019-20 season was reduce quick as a result of pandemic, leading to a shortened 56-game season in 2020-21. These two seasons alone took away 40 potential video games.
Earlier than that was the 2012-13 NHL lockout, which reduce the season to 48 video games, taking away 34 video games.
Between these three shortened seasons, that’s a complete season’s price of video games and doubtlessly one other 50-plus objectives.
Then there may be the query of the 2004-05 season, which may have been Ovechkin’s rookie season had he determined to instantly come over from Russia, that was solely cancelled as a consequence of a lockout.
With an additional 80-100 video games, it’s a not a stretch to suppose he would already be nicely over 950 objectives and doubtlessly closing in on 1,000 for his profession. That doesn’t even get into the very fact he missed greater than a month this very season to a damaged leg, the primary main damage of his profession. And he’s nonetheless over 40 objectives in 61 video games on the age of 39.
Given all of these components, he was already the most effective goal-scorer the NHL had ever seen even earlier than Sunday’s record-setting purpose. Attending to the highest of the record merely removes all doubt and dialogue.
