Ovechkin milestone thread - 850 and Beyond!

[NMacrules]

Foregone conclusion. Keeping in mind it's comparing apples and oranges. 99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era. And had 99 shot more than passing, Ovi wouldn't even come close. Say Gretzky shot on 500 of his passes instead. Likely would be another 100 goals at least.

 

[Rob Brown]

Foregone conclusion. Keeping in mind it's comparing apples and oranges. 99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era. And had 99 shot more than passing, Ovi wouldn't even come close. Say Gretzky shot on 500 of his passes instead. Likely would be another 100 goals at least.

The game is also a lot harder now as players are faster, stronger etc., and goalies are much bigger (with bigger pads) and just better overall. How many goals did Gretzky score just sliding it across the ice where the goalie didn't even drop?

 

[Kranix]

He'll pot at least 40 this year, and crack the record next year. Barring major injury knock on wood.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Will Ovi break Gretzky's goal record?

Ovi has to score 73 goals in remaining 3 seasons of his contract. That's less than 25 goals in 3 years.

Can he do it?

Unless Ovi gets injured or just completely falls apart, he will do it. He's still been a 40+ goal scorer for the past 6 years (if you consider pace for the COVID season), and he's only had 3 seasons under 40 goals so far (again, if you use pace for shortened seasons). The guy is 17 years into his NHL career, and his lowest goal total in a non-shortened season is 32. So even if he starts to slip a bit, he's still most likely a 30 - 35 goal player for the next couple of years, and that almost gets him there. And if he maintains his career pace of scoring 40+, he'll do it 2 years from now.

He scored 42 in 73 games last year, and only needs 36 in each of the next two seasons to just tie Gretzky. It's happening unless he suffers a career ending injury.

It wouldn't have to be career ending, just the type of injury that takes him out of a lot of games. Mind you, at his age, that type of injury could be career ending...so nevermind, you're probably right.

Carry on, nothing to see here, ha ha.

Injury?. He is old , he will be 38 years old in September.

And also some controversy option - will he opt to play in KHL and forget the hunt after goal record?

If he wants some KHL paydays, he can probably get those after he breaks the record. It's not like he's bailing on his current contract to go play in the KHL.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

lol obviously he's gonna break the record, question is whether he gets 1000 (which he can if he wants to play long enough in the NHL)

 

[WarriorofTime]

Keeping in mind it's comparing apples and oranges. 99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era.

It's amazing that scoring was ridiculously higher with all these apparent disadvantages for players in Gretzky's era. I'm sure 1978-79 through 1992-93 being the exact 15 highest scoring seasons in terms of League Averages since World War II (and remove the literal World War II years where players were off fighting in Europe, and that extends to 100 years) was just a crazy coincidence, or that it was Gretzky's sheer awesomeness alone that impacted league scoring to such an extent.

 

[Jugitsu]

He’s under contract with the Capitals until 2025-26, he cannot leave the NHL until then.

Unless something out of the ordinary happens, he should’ve broken the record by then for sure.

You think Russia, KHL or Ovechkin give a f*** about that? If Ovechkin wants to leave to play in the KHL he will and there's not a single thing anybody can do about that.

That being said I don't believe for a second he would do that. He never struck me as someone who wouldn't honor his contractual obligations.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

You think Russia, KHL or Ovechkin give a f*** about that? If Ovechkin wants to leave to play in the KHL he will and there's not a single thing anybody can do about that.

That being said I don't believe for a second he would do that. He never struck me as someone who wouldn't honor his contractual obligations.

Seems to me like you answered your own question, the man himself will honor his contract until the end. He always said he would finish his career with Dynamo Moscow, but it was always implied that it would be at the conclusion of his NHL career (in other words, 2026-27).

 

[filinski77]

Foregone conclusion. Keeping in mind it's comparing apples and oranges. 99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era. And had 99 shot more than passing, Ovi wouldn't even come close. Say Gretzky shot on 500 of his passes instead. Likely would be another 100 goals at least.

"99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era"
-> Considering both of these things, scoring goals was still statistically 30-40% easier in Gretzky's era than in Ovechkins. Therefore the lack of defensive systems, small goalie pads, worse goalie positioning etc. therefore was a significantly larger advantage for Gretzky than any of these couple disadvantages you mentioned.

"And had 99 shot more than passing, Ovi wouldn't even come close."
-> This assumes two things: One being that Ovechkin hogs the puck and shoots when he should have passed - that is incorrect, as anyone who has watched Ovi play knows that he passes A LOT, and it just happens that Ovi doesn't play with great goal scorers. Ovechkin will routinely pass on 2-on-1's just because he thinks his teammate has a better positioning. Secondly - it assumes that Gretzky wasn't always making the best decision with the puck - he was (he's the best player of all-time). If he had a chance to shoot and it was the best option for his team to score, he did (Gretz lead the league in shots 4 times, and is 7th all time for forwards)

"Say Gretzky shot on 500 of his passes instead. Likely would be another 100 goals at least."
-> So you think if he took 500 extra passes (at times where it wasn't the best play to make - ie. he just forced a shot that wasn't the best choice for his team), he'd score at least on 20% of them? His career shooting % is 17.6% - and like I said, he's the best player of all-time, if he truly was that great, he wouldn't have passed up on shots that had a high scoring probability just to pass it. Also worth noting that passing and assists can be generated from soooo many places that are not goalscoring opportunities on the ice.

 

[Mike C]

You think Russia, KHL or Ovechkin give a f*** about that? If Ovechkin wants to leave to play in the KHL he will and there's not a single thing anybody can do about that.

That being said I don't believe for a second he would do that. He never struck me as someone who wouldn't honor his contractual obligations.

That 1st paragraph is a "from your lips,( ok keystrokes), to God's ears type of thing!

 

[NMacrules]

The game is also a lot harder now as players are faster, stronger etc., and goalies are much bigger (with bigger pads) and just better overall. How many goals did Gretzky score just sliding it across the ice where the goalie didn't even drop?

7

Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur say hello.

 

[Mike C]

Foregone conclusion. Keeping in mind it's comparing apples and oranges. 99 had to play with a goon on his line his entire career. 99 also played during the hooking/slashing era. And had 99 shot more than passing, Ovi wouldn't even come close. Say Gretzky shot on 500 of his passes instead. Likely would be another 100 goals at least.

Knock it off, they're gonna tell you why you're wrong and sooner or later, someone will point out how McLoser is so much better than the Great One.

7

Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur say hello.

Billy Smith wants to know how the summer is going

 

[NMacrules]

Knock it off, they're gonna tell you why you're wrong and sooner or later, someone will point out how McLoser is so much better than the Great One.

I lived throughout his entire career. Had flames season tickets. I hated the guy, but talent for talent, he was the greatest (pardon the obvious metaphor/pun). He still has more assists than anyone else has points.

 

[NMacrules]

Knock it off, they're gonna tell you why you're wrong and sooner or later, someone will point out how McLoser is so much better than the Great One.


Billy Smith wants to know how the summer is going

Lundquist, Fuhr, Vernon etc. There were lots of good goalies in the 80's and 90's. I get a kick out of people trying to say the goalies were bad. Like a picture I saw of Conacher holding his goalie stick to the side standing straight up.

 

[Mike C]

I lived throughout his entire career. Had flames season tickets. I hated the guy, but talent for talent, he was the greatest (pardon the obvious metaphor/pun). He still has more assists than anyone else has points.

I hated him too as an Islanders fan. To me Orr and him stand side by side as the best of all time. The guy has over 700 assists more than the guy in 2nd

Good bar trivia to see if anyone knows who in 2nd without looking

 

[NMacrules]

I hated him too as an Islanders fan. To me Orr and him stand side by side as the best of all time. The guy has over 700 assists more than the guy in 2nd

Good bar trivia to see if anyone knows who in 2nd without looking

second what? 99 wasn't drafted.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

second what?

"The guy has over 700 assists more than the guy in 2nd"

You can figure this one out.

 

[NMacrules]

"The guy has over 700 assists more than the guy in 2nd"

You can figure this one out.

I thought he was saying who was drafted after 99

And the answer to second most assist was Ronnie Francis. Also and ex leaf. Didn't need to look it up. It's all people talked about in the 90's.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I thought he was saying who was drafted after 99

99 wasn't drafted.

 

[NMacrules]

99 wasn't drafted.

I know, I already said that.

 

[Mike C]

second what? 99 wasn't drafted.

Second in lifetime assists. Most people I know get it wrong

 

[NMacrules]

Second in lifetime assists. Most people I know get it wrong

Some of my fondest memories are when Killer, Clark and Francis came to the leafs.

 

[Rob Brown]

7

Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur say hello.

Not really sure what your point is considering Gretzky played 12 seasons before Brodeur played a single NHL game, and 5 seasons before Roy.

 

[Randyne]

I lived throughout his entire career.

So you didn't notice he was untouchable? With that cheatcode any generational talent can spam 2K assists from behind the net.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

So you didn't notice he was untouchable?

None of the video would have happened if Gretzky had not been touched.