Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s once seemingly unbreakable goal record is a good enough reason to find out what it’s like to face off against him.
Ever since Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin took the ice for the first time back in 2005, he’s been a goal-scoring phenomenon unlike any we’ve seen in NHL history.
Where Gordie Howe excelled through fierce competitiveness and determination and Wayne Gretzky did by being three steps ahead of everyone else, Ovechkin took off by being bigger, stronger, and having one of the hardest shots in NHL history. No one Ovechkin’s size has dominated the league the way he has, nor have they been as staggeringly consistent throughout their career.
With Ovechkin closing in rapidly on Gretzky’s all-time goal record of 894, a record once believed to be untouchable given that he was able to pile up the majority of those goals in an era which goalies were at the mercy of opposing offenses.
Since the dead puck era of the mid-90s to early-00s, so few players have been able to pile up goals with the kind of regularity Gretzky did. Only Jaromír Jágr was capable of keeping up and lockouts and a brief departure to Russia’s KHL prevented him from taking aim on 99. That he finished his NHL career with 766 goals only leaves us wondering what could’ve been.
But Ovechkin made it possible to stop asking that question and start asking if or when he’d be able to surpass Gretzky. Now as he sits 23 goals away from breaking the all-time goal record, the new question is whether he’ll be able to do it this season. Perhaps the more appropriate question given the way he’s scored this year is when he’ll break it this season.
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For his career, Ovechkin has scored roughly 1.75 goals for every 60 minutes, and he’s played nearly 30,000 minutes. He’s rarely missed time because of injury and that he missed 16 games this season because of a broken leg made it the lengthiest absence he’s had during a season since he entered the league. In the six games since he’s returned, he’s scored four goals.
He’s 39, by the way.
“He’s an incredible physical specimen first of all,” Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Just an incredibly strong man. He’s had one of the best shots in the game forever and he still has one of the best shots in the game. At his age, he knows where to go and he knows where to put it. To be doing it at his age is an incredible feat.”
Ruff has coached against Ovechkin for years with Buffalo, Dallas, and New Jersey. He also broke into the NHL as a player the same year Gretzky did in 1979 and faced off against him on the ice throughout his playing career until he retired after the 1991 season. He also coached against him in his first two seasons behind the Sabres bench. If there’s anyone who can best differentiate between those two, it’s Ruff.
“Now we’re talking physically, Ovi can dominate you,” Ruff said. “Wayne with lateral movement and where he operated on a totally different game. I think Alex’s game, he can run you over, he can take you wide, he can do almost anything and Wayne, his game was incredible how he could go left or right when he hit the line, get the middle of the ice, operate below the goal line, behind the net. So, we’re talking two different games, but two incredible players.”
Trying to stop Ovechkin is something every opponent has tried to do since he’s come into the league and virtually everyone has failed to do so. He’s victimized every team in the league repeatedly, some many more than others, and you could assemble a highlight reel of incredible goals he’s scored against each and every team. The task of trying to stop him is the kind of thing that could wear a player out mentally if they allowed it to.
“Obviously you have all the respect in the world for him and he’s a legend,” Sabres captain defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. “He’s the best goal-scorer of all-time, so of course you get a little bit star-struck to be out there, but when you’re out there you can’t really think about it, you just have to play your own game.”
Ovechkin is a linebacker on skates and even at his age, the force he charges up and down the ice at makes him difficult to contain. No one in their late-30s has the same physical traits they did when they were in their early-20s, but the best players, the guys that succeed year after year after year, adapt to work to their strengths.
“He’s hotter than ever so you really have to stay on him,” Dahlin said. “He seems like he’s scoring from everywhere. You just have to take away his time and space.”
It’s easier said than done, of course.
For two decades now, every NHL coach and player that’s gone against him has tried to adopt their own measures of how to slow him down or at least limit the impact he’ll have on a game. Strategies and plans are all well and good until you’re actually out there against him.
“I don’t know if you can do anything really that crazy (to plan against him),” Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “He’s the best goal scorer probably ever so, you know he’s going to be shooting the puck a lot and that’s the biggest thing to be ready for. You kind of have to be knowing where is all the time because you know he’s probably going to be shooting as soon as he gets it.
“Just overall, having a mark on him and knowing where he is on the ice when he’s on the ice and just go from there. Just give yourself the best chance to be in the right position when he takes a shot. Usually when he scores, you’re kind of a little bit late for it. Just knowing where he is on the ice is the biggest thing.”
For as long as he’s been in the league, Ovechkin has made a home out of the left circle on the power play. You know he’s there, I know he’s there, every player and coach in the league knows he’s going to be there ready to tee up a shot and get ready to celebrate. It’s maybe the most predictable setup in all of hockey and yet, for 20 years, he’s scored there all the time and made everyone look helpless to stop it.
You don’t want to fix what’s not broken but seeing Ovechkin score goals elsewhere on the ice on the power play the past couple seasons is enough to make everyone want to pull their hair out having to track where else he could be in the zone. More motion on the power play is something the Capitals are doing and seeing them work at it during morning skate on Monday in Buffalo was confusing in its own way.
Ovechkin not in the circle!? He’s at the top of the slot? Why is he at the top of the zone teeing up shots?! What the hell is all this?!
It’s not innovation by any means; it’s just finding ways to make a power play stay dangerous and become more frustrating for opposing teams to deal with.
“There’s now so much movement with power plays and guys being interchangeable in different spots,” Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “From a pre-scout standpoint, I always get a kick out of penalty kills going against power plays that move a lot, and you just basically do your pre-scout, and you go, ‘They might be anywhere, and they might shoot from anywhere and every player might be (shooting), so, have fun out there, penalty killers!’ It’s really, really hard to have a good plan defensively on the penalty kill when power plays are so interchangeable with all their pieces.”
A coach adding innovation to a tried-and-true formula has helped the Capitals become one of the best teams in the NHL this season. Doing that while having an ultimate weapon like Ovechkin there to be able to change games with a single shot night after night has helped him add rocket fuel to his pursuit of Gretzky’s record.
For everyone trying to slow him down, even now, it’s a formidable task they’re all too familiar with.