The NHL goalscoring record pursued by Aleksandr Ovechkin was considered almost unstoppable. Now it seems that the 38-year-old is running out of time.
Washington
A record train was still on the schedule at the beginning of the season.
Washington Capitals' reliable scoring machine Aleksandr Ovechkin was believed to be towing steadily towards the destination: Wayne Gretzky all-time record, 894 goals in the NHL regular season.
At that time, there were 72 targets. By all logic, it should have been fulfilled during this season and the next one, if not for bad injuries. After all, Ovetškin scored 50 goals in the second season and 42 goals in the last season – despite being sidelined for nine matches.
Now, 38 games and just eight goals later, the outlook is bleak.
The “door” is not itself, everyone updates.
Washington's Russian superstar has almost half of the regular season behind him. If he doesn't find his familiar goal grain during the spring, Gretzky's record seems to be out of reach.
At the current pace, he wouldn't even get 20 hits this season.
Aleksandr Ovechkin is 38 years old.
Size In his NHL career before this season, Ovetškin had scored an average of 0.61 goals per game. In an intact 82-game regular season, that means 50 goals.
That's an unimaginably hard reading for 18 seasons.
The Capitals captain's trump card has been consistency. Gretzky clearly hit the nets the most in his under-thirties – after that he never reached 40 goals in a season – but Ovetškin had kept up the pace even in his older days.
That's exactly why the goal record had started to look almost the same in recent years inevitablewhich is also explained by the accompanying diagram.
Ovechk too has won the NHL goal exchange no less than nine times and was among the top 15 goal scorers even in his worst seasons. He's not even in the top 150 this season.
Injuries aren't the issue, unless Ovechkin is still slowed by last season's struggles. He has played every game for the Capitals.
In November–December, Ovetškin waded through 14 games without a goal, despite making 51 shots in them. It was the longest dry spell of his career.
Ovechkin the player contract continues until the summer of 2026, i.e. two more future seasons.
If the mood doesn't improve, you have to ask if he has become too much of a burden on his team to chase the record for another couple of years. That conclusion may be made by him himself, but also by the team's fans, coach or owner.
Ovechkin turned 38 in September. That alone doesn't mean that there is a hurry to hang the boots on a nail. You played, for example Teemu Selänne NHL until the age of 43.
On the other hand, Selänne and another Finnish star deserve to be warned, for example, about how the performance can suddenly become dull.
“Sometimes it's amazing how quickly it gets old”, conkar coach Bruce Boudreau said for The Athletic in December.
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“If he was going to quit otherwise, but at the end of the season there would only be ten goals for the record, he would definitely continue”
He has coached Ovetškin in the Capitals 2007–2012, Seläntä in the Anaheim Ducks 2012–2014 and Mikko Koivua With the Minnesota Wild from 2016 to 2020.
“For example, I had Teemu Selänne, who in the first year was the most effective in our team. In the second year, it was suddenly gone. He was over forty, but still. Mikko Koivu had a great year and the following year, oh boys, he slowed down so much that he ended up in the quadruple chain.”
Boudreau, however, said he believes that is not the case with Ovechkin yet.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery admitted to The Washington Post in December that he was getting a little worried about Ovechkin's ineffectiveness. He said he thought it was possible that aging was a factor, but he didn't think it was fruitful to speculate.
“I don't care if it could be about that. I was just thinking about how we can help O become an effective player that will help our team win games and provide him with opportunities for success.”
So what else can you talk about?
Aleksandr Ovechkin's goal in the final minute of a home game against the Nashville Predators on December 30 was disallowed by the referees. The goal would have put the hosts in the lead, but the result was a loss in the shootout.
Ovechk too gets practically as much ice time as before and takes almost as many shots, but the balls don't sink. His shooting percentage has been a career-worst 6.2. In the six previous seasons, it remained between 13.2 and 15.1.
In part, it is probably a statistical deviation, which will be corrected with a slightly longer sampling, i.e. as the season progresses. From the point of view of the record hunt, the only problem is that, since Ovechkin hardly has many seasons left, the decline from his usual performances requires to be compensated with extraordinary performances – or to stretch his career.
Some of the fans are already looking for explanations for the fact that the record is not created.
“Lockout [2012–2013] probably took more than 30 goals away from him and the pandemic lockout probably took 25 goals,” Capitals supporter Doug Larson counts in the corridor of the arena before the match.
While fans almost invariably praise Ovechkin's leadership and selflessness, most believe the record will drive him forward.
“If he was going to quit otherwise, but at the end of the season there would only be ten goals for the record, he would definitely continue”, Jon Abbett says.
Ovechk too has played his entire NHL career with the Capitals. In 2018, Washington celebrated the Stanley Cup, and the team has been almost a regular guest in the playoffs during his era.
Last season, the Capitals' season ended in the regular season for the first time in nine years and only the third time in Ovechkin's career.
Now the Capitals are close to the playoff line.
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“I have chances, quite good ones, but sometimes there are periods when maybe I squeeze the stick too much, because no goals have been scored.”
What if Ovetškin doesn't find his power anymore and the team's slump doesn't stop? Should he be waived maybe already after this season in the name of rebuilding?
“Fortunately, I'm not the one to decide on that,” a supporter John Morrison terrifies.
His friend Anthony Stancampiano says he fears that the ineffectiveness and attention to it has not done Ovechkin any good mentally.
Reasons among other things have been searched for the dreary tone In The Washington Post, in The Hockey News and at The Athletic. They all mention the superiority of the Capitals, with which Ovechkin has been dangerous throughout his career. Today, superiority is completely unattainable.
Ovechkin, who shoots from the right, has been picked up time and time again with cross passes from his standard position near the left starting point. Opponents don't see any other deterrent in the Capitals' superiority, so they focus on covering up even the number one bets.
Chicago Blackhawks' Joey Anderson knocked down Washington Capitals' Aleksandr Ovechkin in December.
A bad setback was the center forward by Nicklas Bäckström the decision to end his career due to a persistent hip problem at the beginning of November. The Swede had more than 15 years behind him as Ovechkin's partner and friend – he even followed him to Dynamo Moscow during the NHL lockout.
Coach Carbery has not found a new credit center to replace him. He has tried the role, varying from Russian Yevgeny Kuznetsov and Canadian Dylan Strome.
Ovechkin himself is also puzzled.
“I have chances, quite good ones, but sometimes there are periods when maybe I squeeze the stick too much, because no goals have been scored. But all in all, I believe that sooner or later it will work out and then everything will start to go in,” he said On the NHL's website before Christmas.
Ovechkin's unprecedented scoreless streak was snapped in overtime against Columbus on December 21st. Counting from that, he has hit a total of three times in nine matches.
So the direction is better, but the momentum is still not convincing.
Aleksandr Ovechkin celebrates his overtime goal with John Carlson in Columbus on Dec. 21.
Chat round in the corridors of the hall, it is clear that Ovechkin's Alho has not made the fans go crazy fo
r his support to Vladimir Putin.
“He is my president,” Ovechkin said after Putin invaded Ukraine less than two years ago, although at the same time he hoped for an end to the war.
After Putin already seized Crimea and plunged into the war in eastern Ukraine, Ovechkin actively campaigned on his behalf.
Still Ovechkin we are loved in the US capital. Some, of course, boycott, but there are not so many of them that the stands are empty.
In the corridor of the hall, everyone likes to talk about Ovechkin's moves on the ice, but fewer people want to comment on the embarrassing Putin matter with their own name.
In any case, the understanding is broad. It is common for fans to separate sports from politics. Many remind us that Ovechkin has a family in Russia and the dictator's criticism could put them in danger.
Taking these opinions into account, it is striking that Ovechkin has kept the official His Instagram account a joint portrait with Putin as a profile picture.
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