Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Ovechkin Eyes Great One

Goal scoring. The most essential part of the offensive aspect of the game of hockey! Tow of the greatest to ever do it are Alexander Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky! Wayne has the most in league history with 894, while Alex sits 6th (at the time of this writing) with 730. A difference of one hundred and sixty five, for Ovechkin to be able to pass the record. Can he do it? Odds may be in his favor.

Ovechkin entered the NHL in 2005. In every season has has had more than 20 goals, his lowest total coming last year with just 24 goals in the short season. In fact, last year not included, Ovie has scored 30 goals or more in every single season. He's had seven seasons of fifty or more goals, one of those years being a sixty goal. The numbers almost speak for themselves with Ovechkin for his career. Throw into the equation the insane number of shot totals Ovechkin has every year, and its really mind numbing. After sixteen years and almost twelve hundred games, some wondered what was next for the Great Eight.

The fact that Alex just signed a new five year deal worth $47.5 million. That means a lot for Ovie. He's got his cup ring, which he won in 2019 with the Caps. He wants another title, that's pretty much a given. I think the bigger, or a bigger, reason for signing the new contract was for a shot at one of hockey's most hallowed records. Only two players in NHL annals have scored more than 800 career goals, Gretzky and Gordie Howe. At the pace Ovechkin is on, when he's healthy, he should be able to pass that 800 goal mark within three years.

Even if Ovechkin can't catch and pass Gretzky for the most goals in the history of the game, at least in regular season play, that's never going to take away from anything that the Great Eight has done over the course of his distinguished career. He's a lock to head to the Hockey Hall of Fame when all is said and done. He will also go down in the history books as the greatest Russian goal scorer of all time

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