Welcome to Top-Shelf Takes, a weekly series from staff writer Mary Clarke all about the NHL. Lace up your skates as we dive deep into the epic highs and lows of this little sport called hockey.
I think we, as hockey fans, have been desensitized to the greatness of Alex Ovechkin.
It’s pretty understandable how we got here, honestly. Ovechkin has been playing in the NHL for nearly two decades. The life-long Washington Capital has been part of our lives as hockey fans since he put up 52 goals and 106 points in his rookie year way back in 2005-06. For some hockey fans, they’ve never known a world in which Ovechkin hasn’t been automatic from his left wing circle office.
On Tuesday, Ovechkin scored his 800th career goal, making him just the third NHL player in history to hit that mark alongside Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin entered the night needing three goals to hit 800 and, fittingly, scored a hat trick to cap off the historical evening.
And hey, not an empty netter in sight either!
Ovechkin is now just 95 goals away from passing Gretzky and breaking the NHL’s career goal scoring record that’s stood the test of time since 1999. Quick math says Ovechkin is currently on a 52-goal pace, which would put him at 832 on the year after he finishes his age-37 season. As long as Ovechkin stays healthy and continues to pace this well, we’ll be witnessing NHL history before his 40th birthday in 2025.
For some time now, it’s felt like we — as a hockey community — have taken what Ovechkin is doing for granted. When the greatest goal scorer of our time routinely scores 50 times over the course of an 82-game season, it can feel a bit mundane in the thick of it. But scaling out to a wider view, Ovechkin’s greatness is simply… breathtaking.
Think about it. Ovechkin is chasing a record many never believed would be broken set by the greatest hockey player of all time. As someone who never watched Gretzky play growing up, Ovechkin’s chase to become the best goal scorer in NHL history has no comparable. And somehow, for many of us, this display of grandeur has become the norm. Expected even!
One day, sometime very soon, Ovechkin won’t be playing in the NHL anymore. It seems impossible to fathom now but it’s a fact. And hopefully before then, Ovechkin becomes the NHL’s greatest scorer of all time. Until that point, I’m no longer going to take Ovechkin for granted. Every goal he’s ever scored and every goal he will ever score before his career ends is a gift that we should be cherishing. Because one day, Ovechkin will no longer be playing hockey and these moments we once looked forward to will only be memory.