Alexander Ovechkin was already unforgettable. He has been one of the most electric hockey players in history over his last 20 seasons: the goal-scoring god, the fearless freight train, the king of the Russians. Breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record of 894 is one of the most remarkable feats in the modern game, but Ovechkin was already a legend. Breaking the record just carves Ovechkin’s name in the rarest stone.
So of course the NHL tried to make it special. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Gretzky were in the building, just as Gordie Howe and Bettman were in the arena when Gretzky broke Howe’s record in 1994. The players all wore mics, there were extra cameras, and a ceremony was planned. And with 12:34 left in the second period, in the wilds of Long Island against the Islanders, Ovi scored No. 895. It would have been better in Washington, but it was electric anyway.
ALEX OVECHKIN IS THE GREATEST GOALSCORER IN NHL HISTORY! 🚨🚨🚨
— NHL (@NHL)
Scoring goals is the hardest thing in hockey, and Ovechkin is now officially the greatest goal scorer the game has ever known. It wasn’t just that he broke Gretzky’s record in the exact same number of games — 1,487 — in that way hockey history so often rhymes; it wasn’t just that Ovechkin spent a good chunk of his career in a semi-dead puck era. It isn’t just his endurance. In 2006, Ovechkin responded to a question about getting hit with a puck by saying “I’m OK, Russian machine never breaks,” and then refused to break. If you go by goals adjusted for era, Ovechkin already had more than anybody else. Nobody has led the league in goals more times than Ovi’s nine; Bobby Hull is second with seven. Like his epochal rival Sidney Crosby, Ovechkin simply refuses to stop.
And beyond all that, Ovechkin is among the most visceral players ever: his roaring heart, his evident joy, his charisma and ferocity and furious ease. It was impossible not to feel that as he chased history. It was impossible not to admire Ovi as he stood atop the mountain. He earned this.
And like Hull, you just wish it was less complicated. Ovechkin’s attachment to Vladimir Putin is no secret. His Instagram profile picture remains a picture of the two men together. The same year he won the Stanley Cup, he posted a with Putin while supporting Putin’s Potemkin re-election. Then Ovechkin wrote: “Personally, I am ready to be part of such a team. I have never hidden my attitude towards our president, always openly supporting him.” Putin, of course, had already annexed Crimea.
And as Ovechkin approached the record, Putin continued his savage, unprovoked war in Ukraine, which got Russia banned in international hockey. Yes, in 2022, Ovechkin briefly called for peace in the wake of the invasion, and was one of only two Russian players to do so. Less than a month later, Ovechkin passed Jaromir Jagr on the all-time goals list. Jagr was a proud Czech who wore No. 68 to commemorate the year the Prague Spring was crushed by a Soviet invasion. Ovechkin’s wife and children were not in attendance; they were back in Russia, where they were stuck by the chaos following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ovechkin is six goals away from surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the league’s all-time leading goal scorer. But the Great 8 is far more than a goal scorer.
Ovechkin is six goals away from surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the league’s all-time leading goal scorer. But the Great 8 is far more than a goal scorer.
So, even before the league started carting the bunting and confetti around, there was a heaviness attached to all this. The best-case scenario is that once you put Putin in your Instagram picture you can’t ever really remove it; the worst case is the greatest goal scorer in the history of hockey is a great friend to one of the world’s true monsters, and that Putin will brandish this accomplishment like a crown.
You can argue it doesn’t matter, but hockey matters to Putin and to Russia. That’s why Putin raised the idea of a summit series between Russian and American hockey players at the end of a recent phone call with Donald Trump. This record was both undeniable, thrilling sporting greatness and a depressing portrait of our age. Trump’s friend Gretzky, along with Bettman, sat with conspiracy zealot and FBI director Kash Patel Friday night in Washington and Sunday in Long Island, watching a friend of Putin as he tried to break something that most people didn’t think was breakable. There’s a lot of that going around Washington, D.C. these days.
In 2012, Ovechkin’s then-teammate Mike Knuble said: “Over the years we’ll disappear and we’ll be left alone, you know? But superstar guys, it follows them. In conversations in bars and sitting around talking to guys, they always bring that up and touch on it, the asterisk. Whether it’s fair or not, that’s the way it is.” Knuble was talking about whether Ovechkin would ever win a Stanley Cup. And when he did, the asterisk was removed.
And then Ovi’s close personal friend started a war on Europe’s doorstep, and Ovechkin marched to one of the greatest records in sports as the bodies piled up, so there’s a different asterisk attached to all this, too: not officially, not primarily, but it’s there. There are ghosts hovering, not far from the feast.
Ovechkin is a legend, and the sheer mind-boggling scale of his greatness is now carved in the rarest stone. He’s been a blessing to hockey, and always will be. It’s just a shame that his greatness, vast as it is, wasn’t everything.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation