Alex Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season on Wednesday evening. It’s his eighth 50-goal season, which joins Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history. But Ovechkin’s performance is far more impressive than either of those two, and eight seasons with 50 goals in each era is an almost unfathomable feat. It’s not just about walking with giants; it is a deposit for a villa on olympus.
Back in the 80’s when Bossy that we lost last week, most of his 50-goal seasons and Gretzky all of his, you could find a couple of barely-sentient obelisks that mustered 50 goals. Everyone scored then. In 82-83, when both Bossy and Gretzky passed the mark, eight players broke 50. The following season, eight players made it as well. From 1977 to 1989, the entire time Bossy and Gretzky scored 50 or more goals in a season, there were 82 such seasons by players. Since Ovie came into the league there have been 26 and he has eight of them. Or 30 percent of all.
Ovechkin has easily achieved the biggest milestones in league history – the measure of the most dominant along with the most consistent and enduring – and he’s done it at a time when scoring is almost twice as hard. Bossy and Gretzky had to shoot at unbalanced circus clowns in the net who were barely 5ft 7 tall. Ovechkin shoots at goalies, who have been training to be goalies since they could walk and are almost always over 6ft 2 and equipped to do so. The goaltenders of the ’80s took to the streets with a second baseman’s mitt and some bed pillows.
It’s hard to know what to compare this performance to. Albert Pujols’ seven 40-homer seasons? Seems to be the only viable comparison, and even that is loose. There are other ways to score and make runs in baseball. In hockey, goals are goals. After all, it is the aim of the game. Nothing else really matters. All of the way we measure hockey and who is effective and who isn’t and who is doing what comes down to who is more likely to score and who isn’t. Ovechkin bypasses all this.
Oh, and Ovechkin is the only player to have scored 50 goals at the age of 35 or more. When he’s reluctant to slow down, let others take the stage, he ticks away like a metronome.
G/O Media may receive a commission
39% discount
Toloco massage gun
Relax!
Has four different speeds, ten different heads for different body parts and is super easy to use thanks to an LED display and its light weight.
He’s now just 115 goals away from Gretzky’s record 894, which hasn’t even become a question of if he’ll catch The Great One, but when. In three seasons, barring a catastrophic injury, he will continue to score at a speed to get there.
It’s all the sadder that the chase doesn’t quite have the joy it should, thanks to Ovie’s wishy-washy reaction to the war in Ukraine. We often do our best to separate the art from the artist, but these things are not black and white, there are always gradations. It’s one thing just to be against higher taxes or something. Repelling an invasion that has resulted in the deaths of thousands and other horrific atrocities is another. It’s not Ovie’s fault, of course. And it’s not like Putin called him to get the green light. But it only spoils the whole thing a little.
But there’s no denying that Ovechkin is the best in the game at getting the puck between the posts. There has been no doubt for some time, and yet it’s still hard not to be overwhelmed by what Ovechkin continues to accomplish. While I also wish it meant just a little bit more.
