Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is 25 goals away from becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. By the way, Alex Ovechkin — who is 39 years old — broke his leg last month.
While football and basketball seasons dominate all the headlines, one of the most awe-inspiring stories in American sports is building completely under the radar.
First and foremost, it needs to be put into perspective just how downright insane it is that Ovechkin being on the verge of setting this record is even a discussion. This is a record that belongs to Wayne Gretzky, arguably the most unambiguous GOAT in all of mainstream sports. Anything he accomplished is supposed to be untouchable, and his all-time goals record of 894 is no different.
No other player who was active into this millennium has gotten closer than Jaromir Jagr with 766 due to the fact that scoring was, on average, much higher during Gretzky’s era. It has picked back up again in recent years, but for most of Ovechkin’s peak, it was extremely rare for any NHL player to hit 50 goals in a season. In fact, between 2013 and 2018, he was the only one to do it — three times.
Ovechkin’s chase is even more impressive because he’s lost what amounts to two full seasons’ worth of games due to circumstances totally beyond his control. He lost the entirety of what was supposed to be his rookie year in 2004-05 due to a lockout, as well as nearly half of the 2012-13 season.
Then, of course, there was COVID-19 shortening both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. In both 2012-13 and 2019-20, Ovechkin was on pace to score well over 50 goals, and considering that he had 52 in his first season in 2005-06, there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t have been already productive as a 19-year-old rookie. Had it not been for those factors, it’s a near-guarantee that Ovechkin would already have the record.
However, what Ovechkin is doing this season is special — even by his standards. Last year, age finally seemed to be catching up to him, as he scored only five times in Washington’s first 29 games. He got hot again to end the season, and it carried over into this year when he started by scoring 15 times in his first 18 contests — on pace for an otherworldly 68 on the season.
Then, he broke his leg, which, for a 39-year-old who does not exactly stay in the most athletic physical shape, could effectively end his productive career, if not his playing days altogether.
He returned five weeks later and casually scored again on that same Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, albeit on an empty net. Then, he scored again the next day — this time at even strength — against the Detroit Red Wings. This should not be humanly possible, and perhaps it’s not. Ovechkin is no human — he’s a machine who wakes up, scores goals, and goes to sleep. NHL followers are watching a straight-up Terminator in action, and it’s not being talked about anywhere near enough.
Given the context of his career, Alex Ovechkin is already the greatest goal-scorer the game of hockey has ever seen. Soon enough, he’ll have the official accolade to prove it by breaking an all-time mark that was once considered unbreakable. As it turns out, the only thing that’s unbreakable is Ovechkin. Age has yet to slow him down; evidently, neither has a devastating leg injury. At this point, maybe nothing ever will. He is, to put it in perhaps the only terms appropriate, just built different.
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