Alex Ovechkin's teammates have gotten used to him passing hockey greats and reaching new milestones on a regular basis. The greatest of the great is yet to come.
All eyes are on Ovechkin as he closes in on Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record of 894. He is just 42 away from breaking a mark that long seemed untouchable, something that could happen as soon as this coming spring. The Washington Capitals captain will be atop another impressive list much sooner.
Ovechkin has scored against 175 different goaltenders since making his debut in 2005. Four more “victims” will put him ahead of Patrick Marleau and Jaromir Jagr for the most in league history. Many of the masked men Ovechkin has tormented over the years are in awe of what he can do on the ice and, in some cases, rooting for him to get to 895 goals and beyond.
“It’s not going to be surprising,” said Pittsburgh's Alex Nedjelkovic, who allowed two goals to Ovechkin last season in his first two games facing him. “I would not be surprised if he broke it this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke it by Christmas, to be honest with you, but that’s just the kind of goal scorer he is. I think it’s well within reach.”
Ovechkin has averaged 0.6 goals per game over his long career, a pace that would set him up to threaten the record by late March. He scored 31 last season after going on a second-half tear, so the 40-goal mark would require a return to younger form.
He just turned 39 and has already outpaced scorers his age throughout hockey history to get to 817, so it would be silly to rule out the record this season, his 20th. He is under contract next season, too.
“I’m hoping he’s going to break the record, and I think he will maybe this year,” said Chicago's Petr Mrazek, who has allowed nine goals to Ovechkin. “That’s the way he shoots, that’s the way he scores, so it’s not easy to stop him and you have to be lucky, as well.”
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Nearly a decade later, Mrazek remembers his third game against Ovechkin like it was yesterday. The Russian superstar on the way to his seventh of nine career 50-goal seasons put 15 shots on net, Mrazek turned them all aside and Detroit won 1-0.
“He used to be my favorite shooter to stop,” Mrazek said.
Favorite teammate, favorite player to watch — rarely favorite shooter to go up against.
Still, goalies like Philadelphia's Samuel Ersson likes the challenge so much that he has enjoyed getting the chance to face pucks fired at him from Ovechkin.
“His shot is lethal,” said Ersson, who allowed Ovechkin's 817th and most recent goal. "He finds a lot of ways to put pucks through goaltenders, and it’s something you’ve always got to be aware of, where he is. It’s one of those things that you might even be focusing a little bit too much on him and something else happens."
Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur always found that difficult, given the Capitals in their prime had not only Ovechkin but Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, John Carlson and others to score. Brodeur compared Ovechkin's shot to fellow Russian scoring wingers Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Mogilny, and said he had to be aware all the time just like when he was facing Brett Hull.
"Everybody’s looking for him all the time," said Brodeur, who allowed seven goals in 21 regular-season games against Ovechkin. “Even though you know he’s there, he still get gets it done."
Colorado's Alexandar Georgiev is now among Ovechkin's most scored-on goalies with 10, largely because of his time with the New York Rangers. He is still behind all-time netminders like Marc-Andre Fleury (27), Henrik Lundqvist (24), Carey Price (22) and Sergei Bobrovsky (16) and said it is “incredible how he can just fly it.”
“Almost like he controls it with a remote,” Georgiev said.
Brodeur early on never thought Ovechkin would even come close to Gretzky and chalked it up not just to the shot and skill but health and longevity.
Brodeur is done standing in the way of Ovechkin's shots. No such luck for goalies like Utah's Karel Vejmelka, who faces Washington just twice a season and figures Ovechkin will break the record sometime.
“Yeah,” he said. "Hopefully not on me.”
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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo and AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver and Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed.
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