Week 5: Ovechkin Might Really Do It, and the Atlantic is So Tight through October
By Cooper Gould
I think that by this point, anyone who is following the NHL in any sort of capacity is keeping one eye on the box score any time the Capitals are on the ice. We’re all collectively holding our breaths waiting to see if — although now it feels more like when — the Great 8 is going to break Gretzky’s record for all time career goals.
Quick insert here: the following thoughts were written before doing research about Ovechkin’s political positions and history of support for Vladimir Putin. The opinions expressed below do not take this aspect of Ovechkin’s life and career into consideration, and are clearly missing important context when we are asking questions about whether or not a person’s career or accomplishments should be celebrated. I am not interested in opening up a philosophical debate about whether we can separate the art from the artist. That would deserve it’s own conversation and the points I make below are independent from that. There are pieces specifically about this issue here and here. I have reconsidered my own opinions, and I no longer endorse the conclusion I come to below, although I do think the analysis remains accurate, if incomplete. I strongly encourage anyone following this particular piece of hockey history to look for the resources they need to feel confident in their perspective on it, and if that perspective is still a confusion of excitement and disappointment, you are not alone!
I have to admit, when the conversations started bubbling up a few years ago about Ovechkin surpassing Gretzky’s all time tally, I was quietly hopeful that he never would. It was a comfort to me that the Great One was so well and truly the Great One of the sport. Sort the career stat sheet by almost any column and Gretzky’s name was the first on the list. (The only exception of course being power play goals, where Ovechkin already leads the pack by a good margin and Gretzky finds himself humbly in eighteenth, but in good company sandwiched between Yzerman and Sakic). The point being, Gretzky was so dominant for long enough that the fact of his being the sport’s GOAT is undeniable. He passed the eye test, and he had the numbers to back it up, nobody has ever so thoroughly looked like they commanded the ice in every way as he has, and his point totals are just bonkers. I mean a point total that is half again what the next highest guy on the list all time got? In 300 fewer games no less? Undeniable.
Unless… what if somebody did top him? In one of the columns at least. 99 would still hold on to points and assists — and I believe almost certainly will for all time — but his dominance wouldn’t be quite so universal. His greatness would be besmirched! And that is a possibility that I have no patience for. For anyone who follows the NBA, can we agree that the GOAT debates are tedious and infuriating? I don’t think it does anything for the sport to have people jumping down each other’s throats because heaven forbid there’s more than one superstar who has risen above the rest of their generation. In soccer too, the Messi vs. Ronaldo debate has achieved a similar hollow tedium that feels worthless and played out. And the sports that don’t have a big two — although there are definitely some basketball fans who would say that it’s more of a big four since Wilt and Kareem have to be included — still have some sort of controversy for the most part. Look at cycling or baseball, where so many of the biggest names have been smeared by doping of some sort or another. (Although at least for both of those sports, there are young undeniable talents who seem destined to take over the titles of GOAT if they haven’t already.) Or other sports where the crowning competition of the sport happens at the Olympics, and consistency is marked not by perennial greatness, but whether or not their name is in the news every four years. That’s not at all to say that Usain Bolt or Katie Ledecky or Simone Biles is not great every second of every day of every year, it’s just a bit like apples and oranges to compare against athletes who have to play 82 games a year, and far more if they win a championship. Hockey stands alone as a sport with a single great one — no debate about it, no chance that four years from now someone has a single week-long competition that tarnishes that glow, and records so monumental that if anyone was going to surpass them, we’d see it from a long, long way off. It was almost comforting to have such an all-powerful god in the sport. Someone whose legendary prowess was so unbreachable that there was no chance for anyone to topple him. And no one in the league had ever been on any sort of pace to even come close. That is, until Ovechkin was.
So when Ovechkin had an off-season last year — at an age and point in his career when an off-season might be indicative of more than just an off-season — a small part of me was relieved. He might run down just in time to leave Gretzky atop the heap of all time lamp lighters. But it seems that the thirty-nine year old was indeed just having an off year, as he’s roared out of the gate this season scoring at a rate of well over half a goal a game. Which — depending on how long he can keep it up — might put him on pace to crest the 1,000 goal tally by the time he hangs up his skates, to hell with just the record. That would be an unbelievable accomplishment. In a sport where only 254 players have ever crossed the 1,000 games played marker, the fact that it’s not impossible for someone to be eying 1,000 goals is almost incomprehensible.
And it’s made me take some time to reconsider my stance on the matter. To cut to the chase, I’m rooting for him to do it. That is, beating Gretzky — we should still wait to hold our breath for 1,00 goals. I think he can beat out 99, I think he will, and I know that I’ll be happy when he does.
It’s taken a few things for me to realize why I’ve come around to it. The first thing is that no one, and I mean NOBODY is talking about Ovi surpassing Gretzky in terms of the greatest of all time. Maybe some whispers of greatest goal scorer of all time, but certainly not greatest of all time. I think that I may have been clutching my pearls a bit with how preciously I held the idea that Gretzky had the most all time in not only points, but goals and assists each independently as well. It is a remarkable thing, but ultimately being first place in the G column is not the pillar upon which his greatness stands.
And I think he’d be the first person to tell you that. Hell, one of the people who might be contributing to Ovechkin taking the title of greatest goal scorer of all time is Gretzky himself. He has no shortage of great things to say about Ovechkin, and is even rooting for the Russian to beat his record. It feels pretty silly for me to be holding onto the guy’s record more preciously than he does himself.
Another factor to consider — which has been made easier to consider with the recent surges and milestones of two particular penguins — is that Ovechkin might not even go down as the greatest player of his generation. Sid the kid is still crushing it at 37 years old, and although that he’s had more of a history of injury than Ovechkin has, he’s been the more consistent and greater all-around talent than Ovechkin has. Crosby maybe can’t claim the goal-scoring prowess that Ovechkin can, but the guy’s already gone over 1,000 assists in his career, and has 50 more career points than Ovechkin in 150 fewer games. He’s also got three cups to Ovi’s one, and has managed to shine even with Evgeni Malkin right beside him, who has every claim to the #3 spot in their generation of players. It’s taken Connor McDavid — coincidentally the only player I know of who’s drawn earnest comparisons to Gretzky — to dethrone Crosby as best hockey player on earth. And even though Ovechkin has made his mark on the sport indelibly in more or less the same span of time that Crosby has, it does not seem likely that Ovechkin, no matter what mark he hits in goals scored, will probably not surpass Crosby as the greatest player (so far) of the 21st century. So let Ovechkin have the record. If it most likely won’t change the perceptions of the greatest players of his generation, it certainly can’t be a threat to the legacy of the great one.
And I can’t express how important it is too that we recognize the legacy of Ovechkin and the impact that he’s had on this league. It can’t go unsaid that Ovechkin, if/when he becomes the leading goal scorer of all time, will have done so for a reason. I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to say he redefined the wing position, or at least scoring from the wing. I honestly don’t know if we would see players like Pastrnak or Draisaitl, or even older guys like Stamkos have had the careers they’ve had if not for Ovechkin showing them how to score the way that he did. Obviously, these guys are all insanely talented and would have had incredible careers with or without Ovechkin. But I also don’t think we can ignore the fact that Ovechkin already leads the league all time in power play goals by a lot, and leads Stamkos, the next leading active player, by almost 100. He’s the best to ever do the off-wing one timer — he didn’t invent it, I wouldn’t go that far, but no one has eaten out on that shot as much as he has. Something that Gretzky himself has said about Ovechkin — in the same video that is linked above — is that he doesn’t hide what he’s about to do. Everyone on the ice — in the whole building — knows what he’s about to do, and he’s such a special goal scorer because it doesn’t matter. He’ll sit on the left-hand faceoff dot with his stick in the air and no matter what anyone on the other team does, he still smashes the puck past the goaltender. And like I said, he’s shown others how to do the same. They even made a whole event in the NHL All Star Skills Challenge this past year based on this exact shot. There’s no doubt that Ovechkin’s style, ability, and shots have forever changed how the game is played at the topmost level.
The last thing influencing my coming around on supporting the record being broken, is how easy it is to root for Ovechkin. He’s aways played with a fire under his ass, he’s always been a dogged teammate and leader. He’s worn the captain’s C for the Capitals for 14 years, and he’s led them to a cup and three President’s Trophies. His teammates clearly love him, and he has won a near unanimous respect from players on the other teams around the league. It seems like The arc he’s had in his career is one that I think is comparable to Roger Federer’s career on some sort of stimulant. Young and cocky, with a career apex that backs up every inch of that cockiness, and a mellowing out in his later career that brings a humility and self-deprecation and a mentorship towards younger players that is really endearing. Ovechkin is a special goal scorer because he doesn’t just score goals. He celebrates hard for every single goal the Capitals score. He has put his team on his shoulders with his play but also emotionally. You can tell that he is the lifeblood of the Washington team and has been for now decades. If/when Ovi breaks the record, I think that he will have deserved it, and I’ll watch it with a smile on my face.
The Bruins have won their past two games in a row in low scoring shutouts, and they have shot up from the very bottom of the Atlantic division to a single point out of holding a playoff position. With the exception of the Florida Panthers, the Atlantic is tight. And I don’t think it would be accurate to say it’s because it’s even a particularly good division. In the past it certainly has been, but it was tough to get out of the Atlantic because the top five or six were great and there were a few teams to beat up on. But no longer! We’ve got one good team and the rest are competitively mediocre. It seems like for the first time in a while, the Atlantic might actually be the worst division in the league. And yet, still the most difficult to make it out of come playoff time.
What makes the Atlantic especially confounding this year, is that it doesn’t feel like we’re still sifting out into a hierarchy that makes sense. In the other divisions that still look competitive at this point in the season, the middles of the divisions have some clear movers that seem to be gradually getting into the places that we expect of them. Take the Pacific, for instance, where the Oilers — despite the loss of McDavid — are making a steady march towards the top of the table after their shaky start, and the Flames are starting to falter after their hot stretch in the first few weeks. In the Central, which is looking like the strongest division, the Jets and the Wild are playing in a way that’s started to shut up the doubters, and the Stars still look like they’ll hit the playoff threshold that was expected of them. The Av’s and the Pred’s might rebound to make the division even more exciting, but even if they continue to stumble through injuries and growing pains respectively, it won’t be hard to make it out of that division because all of the teams look so evenly matched. The Metro is maybe the most perfectly split division, with half of the teams at 16+ points and the other half at 11 or fewer. It’s still early enough for the bunching within the top and bottom halves to be pretty close, but I don’t know if that gulf between the haves and the have-nots in the division is going to do anything but grow.
Now I know that as a B’s fan it’s tempting to see Buffalo and Montreal at the bottom right now and forget that that’s exactly where we were three days ago. But it’s hard also to look at how the season has started and pick out any teams in the division who have performed all that much better. Of the seven teams other than the Panthers, none have more than 5 wins in their last ten games — the Atlantic is the only division to only have one team above the 6-win mark in their last 10 games — and none have more than 11 points in their last ten games — also the only division for which this is true. To reasonably have a shot at the playoffs, teams usually need 12 points for every ten games they play, and only one team in the division is hitting that number. We’re the only division missing the mark that badly, and it’s unclear if it gets better from here. And back to the Habs and the Swords, each of their respective alliterative young stars (Cole Caufield and Tage Thompson) is looking so good right now it seems hard to count them out of any given game.
Is it the competition of the division? Is it the competition of the league in general? Optimistically, I think it might be. It feels like there are very few teams that feel like free points. I’ve spoken a few times already about the Predators and the Avalanche, and how the holes they’ve gotten themselves into aren’t ideal for their seasons, but that doesn’t make them easy teams to play. Even with 9 injuries I don’t imagine teams are headed into games against Colorado thinking that MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar are going to give them an easy game. Nor do I think that any team relishes the idea of facing a Nashville power play of Stamkos, Point, Skjei, Josi, and Forsberg. And the other teams towards the bottom of other divisions pack a punch too. Bedard looks like he might be the generational talent Chicago needs to rebuild their franchise, and Celebrini has shown that he might be the same for the Sharks once he’s healthy again.
I know that I have an optimistic lean when looking at the league as a whole, but I feel pretty invigorated by the “mediocrity” that we’re seeing around the league. With the exception of the handful of teams that have been stellar thus far, everyone else looks sub-par, but not because they’re bad, just because there are too many mouths to feed and not enough points to go around. There’s still plenty of time for the table to shake out and for clearer hierarchies to form, but it still feels like every week we get to watch playoff hockey. I don’t know if there are any teams that have stopped playing for a spot in the postseason quite yet, and there are so few games that feel easy to predict. I hope that the Atlantic stays at tight as it has, and I hope that we continue to see a super competitive year across the league.
