Alexander Ovechkin has supplanted Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time goal scorer.
Let that sink in for a moment, because even a few years ago, did it seem possible that anyone, from any era, could supplant Wayne Gretzky at anything?
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I, for one, didn’t. In fact, I wrote as much in our GOAT of GOATS project five years ago, which asked readers to vote for who you think is the greatest of the greatest athletes:
“Gretzky has set the bar so high, it’s unlikely his records for … deep breath … points scored (2,857), goals (894), assists (1,963), goals in a season (92) and points in a season (215), just to name a few — we could go on … quickest to 50 goals in a season, most assists in a season, most 100-point seasons — will ever be broken.”
Readers agreed. When we put the GOAT of GOATS to a vote, in a make believe tournament that included Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth and Michael Phelps and Tom Brady and Muhammad Ali and Lionel Messi and all the greatests in their respective sports, Gretzky emerged victorious, beating out Jordan by a 54%-46% count in the final.
Fans hold up signs for Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin who scored his 895th goal to surpass Wayne Gretzky. (Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“The old adage ‘records are made to be broken’ does not apply to Wayne Gretzky,” I wrote at the time.
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That confidence came from the swiftness with which Gretzky became No. 1, plus the distance he’d put between himself and second place. He passed Gordie Howe’s all-time scoring record in just 780 games (to Howe’s 1,767), then went on to play another 10 seasons. He became the NHL’s all-time goal scorer after 1,052 games, then tacked on five more seasons and 93 more goals.
But as great as the Great One was, Father Time caught up with even him. In the four seasons from age 35 to 38, he managed just 80 goals.
Five years ago, Ovechkin was entering his Age 35 season 188 goals back of Gretzky. No way he had that many goals still in him, right? Well, all Ovi has done since then is step up his game. He scored 50 at age 36, 42 a year later, and this season — at 39 — has scored more goals than he did in his Age 25, 26 and 27 seasons.
What’s more, he’s done this in an era where goal scoring is actually down from Gretzky’s heyday, probably because goaltending has gotten so much better (or the pads have gotten bigger).
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And it’s not like he passed Gretzky just by sticking around long enough. For Gretzky, it took 1,487 games to score his 894 goals; Ovechkin needed 1,487 to score 895.
So here we are, five years later, and the old adage that didn’t realistically apply then to Wayne Gretzky — that records are made to be broken — suddenly does because Alexander Ovechkin made it so. Becoming the NHL’s all-time goal scoring leader doesn’t now make Ovi the GOAT — Gretzky’s still the all-time leader in points, on his assists alone — but this isn’t the average record being broken.
Alexander Ovechkin is now the greatest goal scorer the NHL has ever seen, more prolific even than the GOAT of GOATs.
This news was originally published on this post .
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