Will Ovechkin hit 20 goals this season?

[MVP of West Hollywd]

He will roar back

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Time to hang em up

 

[Pavels Dog]

First page is hilarious.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Probably should change the title. from 20 to 10 goals.
13 last games, 1 goal

With that pace, he'll end up with 9 goals this season.

 

[HabsCode]

Probably should change the title. from 20 to 10 goals.
13 last games, 1 goal

With that pace, he'll end up with 9 goals this season.

Nah I still want to see this dude eat his house pieces by pieces on live stream.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Nah I still want to see this dude eat his house pieces by pieces on live stream.

Aaaaaaa ha haaa

 

[jigglysquishy]

I still think he gets some type of rebound. Maybe a 6 goals in 10 games type rebound.

But 30 goals this year is becoming increasingly unlikely.

 

[InfinityIggy]

Bryan Hayes at TSN took a lot of criticism for leaving Ovechkin off a Top 50 Players list at the start of the season. Watch this video and Jeff O'Neill was killing him for it.

Dunno who the hell "O-Dog" is but guy is a total clown, not just for his Ovi take.

 

[mr figgles]

Love seeing the 0 next to his name after every game. I want him out there at 60 still trying for the record.

 

[coooldude]

The drop off has come, Father Time is inevitable (not sure how LeBron does it), hopefully The Great 8 finishes strong.

LeBron is a fitness freak who sleeps 12 hours a day and takes incredible care of his body. Ovie, as I have posted recently, eats cheesy pasta as a pregame meal and is still a known drinker.

Players who play really late into their careers are militant about their fitness and health. Ovie was a legend for many reasons, one of which was not giving a shit about that at all, but... It's catching up to him.

Just because he wants the record doesn't mean he can even lace them up for the amount of time it would take to get the record. My bet would be he plays next year, starts seeing 4th line minutes and PP minutes, scores another 10-15, maybe, and retires.

 

[KnockHobbler]

He’s washed.

 

[jalidi]

He's got two years left on his contract but wow, I was expecting at least a couple of 20-30 goal campaigns and then getting signed for one last 10-20 one to get the record. Anything's possible, maybe he'll find a second wind, but it's looking increasingly unlikely with him so far matching Gretzky's 9 goal season at 38.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Dunno who the hell "O-Dog" is but guy is a total clown, not just for his Ovi take.

Jeff O'Neill!

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Idk, look at how many Selanne was able to pot from 38 and beyond. I still maintain the dude ain't retiring until he has the record, no matter what level he's at.

I could see this season being a bit of a wakeup call and then OV changing his offseason lifestyle / fitness regime to score more next season than he does this one.

 

[jigglysquishy]

For all the Lebron talk, he's only 10 months older than Ovechkin and is arguably the best athlete (specifically, athlete not player) in NBA history.

We have examples of NHL stars being effective into their 40s. We just have 100x larger sample size of it not happening.

 

[tom_servo]

First page is hilarious.

Hopefully @Sasha Orlov's house is gingerbread.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Hopefully @Sasha Orlov's house is gingerbread.

I am getting nervous

 

[BraveCanadian]

LeBron is a fitness freak who sleeps 12 hours a day and takes incredible care of his body. Ovie, as I have posted recently, eats cheesy pasta as a pregame meal and is still a known drinker.

Players who play really late into their careers are militant about their fitness and health. Ovie was a legend for many reasons, one of which was not giving a shit about that at all, but... It's catching up to him.

Just because he wants the record doesn't mean he can even lace them up for the amount of time it would take to get the record. My bet would be he plays next year, starts seeing 4th line minutes and PP minutes, scores another 10-15, maybe, and retires.

I'd say whatever Ovechkin is doing has worked extremely well considering he has probably the best longevity as a top shelf goalscorer in the history of the league. He's practically a perfect example against your case for bro science nutrition and fitness. His longevity and lack of injuries while being a physical player in his career are outliers really.

Everyone is different, obviously, but I think the impact of some of these things is vastly overstated when we're comparing professional athletes.

 

[MadLuke]

I can a lot of things can help or hurt (heavy smoking for a very long time, alcohol, sleep, stress), but the idea that cheesy pasta as a pregame meal (and nutrition in general, as long you have your calories, liquid fiber, protein % high enough...) seem completely overrated.

it is like people being surprised or judging hockey player that drink coke during game, some cyclist doing Le tour de France have coke with them on their bike.

Sugar before, during of after sport is obviously not bad at all, look at Micheal Philips regime during training, probably a bit of a show but nutella pancake, pizza, etc... if you need 8000 calories a day, you will need density.

Pudzianowski was waking up in the middle of night to eat chocolate bar, incredible longevity in his sport, 5 time world strongest men.

 

[coooldude]

I'd say whatever Ovechkin is doing has worked extremely well considering he has probably the best longevity as a top shelf goalscorer in the history of the league. He's practically a perfect example against your case for bro science nutrition and fitness. His longevity and lack of injuries while being a physical player in his career are outliers really.

Everyone is different, obviously, but I think the impact of some of these things is vastly overstated when we're comparing professional athletes.

"My" case for "bro" science? How about "the global consensus" case for "elite athletic performance in every pro league and Olympic program on the planet"? I have no skin in this game, I'm just stating reality. Nobody anywhere is going to encourage drinking and cheesy pasta eating to a pro athlete and the ones that can succeed doing that for a long time are few and far between. As I said before, the fact that Ovie was successful doing so (which is rare) was another reason why he is such a legend and beloved.

 

[coooldude]

I can a lot of things can help or hurt (heavy smoking for a very long time, alcohol, sleep, stress), but the idea that cheesy pasta as a pregame meal (and nutrition in general, as long you have your calories, liquid fiber, protein % high enough...) seem completely overrated.

it is like people being surprised or judging hockey player that drink coke during game, some cyclist doing Le tour de France have coke with them on their bike.

Sugar before, during of after sport is obviously not bad at all, look at Micheal Philips regime during training, probably a bit of a show but nutella pancake, pizza, etc... if you need 8000 calories a day, you will need density.

Pudzianowski was waking up in the middle of night to eat chocolate bar, incredible longevity in his sport, 5 time world strongest men.

There are always examples of people who flout the rules and still succeed. Ovie is one of them. Most athletes who are trying to be at the top of their performance late in their careers are being much more careful about their health than Ovie has been, by pretty much all public accounts.

If I'm wrong, fine! But something has slowed Ovie down and faster than people expected. Could be natural aging, could be playing style, could be an extended unlucky streak. But the Occam's razor answer is that it's age, and not being helped by lifestyle.

 

[MadLuke]

If I drink a lot, do not sleep well, smoked a lot I am sure it can play a role, but I cannot see what cheese or pasta before game issue could be ?

Jean Beliveau, Howe, Richards, etc... pre-game meal were steak and wine for a long time that it would not surprise me., pasta was the fancy more science pre-game meal plan before game when I was younger, did not even know it became seen as an issue.

Ovechkin scoring for so long, the minutes, the way he played young and with the low amount of game he missed are all testament that what he did was working really well for him.

 

[BraveCanadian]

There are always examples of people who flout the rules and still succeed. Ovie is one of them. Most athletes who are trying to be at the top of their performance late in their careers are being much more careful about their health than Ovie has been, by pretty much all public accounts.

If I'm wrong, fine! But something has slowed Ovie down and faster than people expected. Could be natural aging, could be playing style, could be an extended unlucky streak. But the Occam's razor answer is that it's age, and not being helped by lifestyle.

To be honest, he's been beating the odds every year for a while.

 

[pi314]

What's more crazy is that the 'greatest player ever' could only score 9 goals at Ovechkin's age.

Did you really just put quotes around Gretzky being the “greatest player ever”?

 

[Bear of Bad News]

If I'm wrong, fine! But something has slowed Ovie down and faster than people expected. Could be natural aging, could be playing style, could be an extended unlucky streak. But the Occam's razor answer is that it's age, and not being helped by lifestyle.

Ovechkin's had incredible longevity and success well into his thirties - he's an outlier in a good way. "Faster than people expected" hinges strongly on recency bias.

Plenty of old threads where people said it was exceptionally unlikely that he'd break the record because it's incredibly rare to have success late into one's thirties, and (as recently as this offseason) Ovechkin fans were laughing at those older posts.