Ovechkin hockey’s greatest pure scorer of all time

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This article was published 17/01/2022 (1374 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON — Alexander Ovechkin scored on Saturday. Then he did it again on Sunday. He likely would have lit the lamp on Monday as well, but for the minor detail that his team didn’t have a game. You can pretty much bet the farm he’ll pick up right where he left off on Tuesday night when his Washington Capitals host the Winnipeg Jets.

Sorry, Connor Hellebuyck and company. That’s just what Ovechkin does.

Better than anybody currently playing the game, with an NHL-leading 26 tallies this season. Better than anybody in the league since he made his debut in 2005, with 756 goals and counting. (To illustrate how much he is lapping the field in that span, Sidney Crosby is No. 2 with 491. How do you say “Eat my dust” in Russian?). And, when all is said and done, likely better than anybody who has ever played the game — past, present and future.

This right here, folks, is my ode to one of the most gifted athletes we’ve ever seen, a player you simply can’t take your eyes off whenever he’s on the ice. Or off it, as we saw during his epic Stanley cup celebration a few summers ago complete with keg stands and other celebratory escapades.

Love him or loathe him — and there’s a long list of NHL goaltenders who likely wake up in a cold sweat with visions of him winding up for his patented one-timer — there truly is nobody quite like him.

Wayne Gretzky sits on top of the hockey mountain, and his career total of 894 goals was thought to be an untouchable record. That certainly appeared to be the case for the longest time as netminders (and their equipment) exploded in size, as advanced scouting and analytics and shot-blocking and defensive zone structure became key parts of the sport and those wide-open, 7-6 thrillers gave way to 3-2 snoozers.

Except Ovechkin apparently missed the memo. Despite turning 36 last fall, he’s showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. In fact, the numbers suggest he’s actually getting more potent in his advanced sporting years, which truly makes him a freak of nature.

Consider this: he’s on pace to light the lamp 55 times this year over 82 regular-season games, which would be his best single-season output since he scored 56 goals in 2008-09. The only better campaign than that happened one year earlier, in 2007-08, when he had 65.

He’s gunning for the Great One. And it’s only a matter of time before the Great Eight is looking down on everyone else with his own special spot in the red light district.

Ovechkin is currently fourth all-time in scoring. He should move to No. 3 in a matter of weeks, trailing Jaromir Jagr by just 10 goals (despite playing almost 500 less games). He’s 45 back of catching Gordie Howe, which should happen at some point next year. After that, there’s only one more legend to unseat, like the final boss in a video game.

Which Ovechkin, it appears, has obtained the cheat code for. Or at least is playing on easy mode.

At this rate, he might just get there before his birthday cake has 40 candles on it. Considering he’s aging like the finest of wines, is there anybody out there who believes it won’t eventually happen? In addition to being a ridiculously consistent scorer, he’s proven to be one of the most durable players in the league. Ovechkin has missed only 24 games due to injury in his 17 seasons, which is some kind of voodoo.

It would be one thing if he was a perimeter player, a guy who never got his nose dirty, but Ovechkin is the polar opposite, a true power forward who enjoys throwing the body around as much as he does throwing his hands up in the air to celebrate his latest snipe. At six-foot-three and 238 pounds, he is a tank on skates who has also been Teflon when it comes to serious aches and pains.

And that’s why, as we sit here today, I’m already prepared to declare him the game’s greatest pure scorer, even if the numbers tell us he’s still got a few more miles to go. Fact is, Gretzky (and other big stars of his era) benefited from a completely different style of play, one we’re reminded of every time a television network throws on a “classic” game.

Scrawny goalies looking like they have a couple Sears catalogues taped to their legs rarely went down on and were routinely beaten on the ice with the kind of shots that wouldn’t even register as a Grade A scoring chance in today’s NHL, which is filled with more speed and skill than ever before.

The fact Ovechkin has 265 goals more than the next best scorer since he entered the league shows just how special he is. He is a unicorn.

There’s nothing terribly complex or tricky about how Ovechkin has achieved success, which only adds to his aura. Absolutely everybody and their dog knows what he’s going to try and do every shift, especially when it comes to the power play where he recently passed Dave Andreychuk for most all-time goals with the man advantage.

Opponents know exactly where he’s going to stand on the ice. They all his teammates are going to try and feed him in his “office.” And the next to figure out how to stop him on a consistent basis will be the first.

Ovechkin has been good for the game in other ways besides his personal and team achievements. He is engaging and charismatic, a big personality to go with his big shot who has inspired an entire generation of players, both near and far.

Patrik Laine, you’ll recall, would always speak about how much he idolized Ovechkin. My own hockey-loving son, just starting his own minor-league career back in 2006 at the tender age of five, quickly identified “Ovie” as his favourite player, a label which continues to this very day.

As terrific as Connor McDavid is — and he may one day be viewed as the best all-around hockey player of all time — he isn’t exactly a great face and voice for the sport. His short, sulky interviews out of Edmonton, especially as they go through yet another in a seemingly never-ending cycle of tailspins, have grown tiresome.

Ovechkin comes across as a big kid who is having the time of his life whenever he laces up the skates or gets in front of a camera. I always make a point of focusong on him in the pre-game warmup, as I will do again on Tuesday night here in Washington, for the frenetic energy he brings to what is usually a pretty tedious affair.

I’d suggest you keep your eye on Ovechkin as well, if for no other reason than we are watching history play out in front of us. That, and the fact he’s likely to score, of course. Because that’s what he does.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg