You'd have to be a complete Ovechkin hater to think this was remotely close. Surprise! It's a couple Crosby fans saying this is close.
There is nothing that supports Bossy in this comparison. He is nowhere near the best of his era in terms of peak goalscoring, and it's not just Gretzky and Lemieux that trounce him but also Brett Hull. Mike Bossy had the 45th best adjusted goal scoring season of all time as of 2020 (now 49th). Ovechkin has the #2 season. Nevemind that Ovie was playing on a recent lottery team in 2008 while Bossy was supported by a dynasty.
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And you'd have to be a complete Ovechkin fanatic to ignore playoffs and what happens beyond round 2 completely - and only focus on regular season.
3 straight years of leading playoffs in goals - scoring 17 goals each playoffs.
Ovechkin's highest playoff goal total is 15, 11....and then never above 5.
3 year stretch of 81 to 83:
1. Bossy 51 goals
2. Trottier 25 goals
3. Gretzky 24 goals
GPG in that stretch - Bossy .91, Gretzky 0.8
That's huge domination
To give you an idea of how impressive his goals per game rate is in that 3 year stretch - 0.91 goals per game is higher than Bossy ever achieved in any regular season. So for a 3 year playoff peak, he scored way above his regular season best.
Yes - it's close, because playoffs matter too.