Ovechkin milestone thread - 850 and Beyond!

[andrjusha]

Bumping leads:

Multi-goal road game #96, all-time leader by 13

Road game goal #430, all-time leader by 28

Powerplay goal #309, all-time leader by 35

https://stathead.com/tiny/lLacA

 

[Praetorian Caps]

 

[CokenoPepsi]

Who would have thought Ovechkin would lead his team to the playoffs this year while Crosby missed

 

[canuckking1]

Who would have thought Ovechkin would lead his team to the playoffs this year while Crosby missed

Extra funny because Pens made win now moves and gave up their first

 

[Video Nasty]

The all time record at his age is 37, it’s a bit much to say he was “supposed” to score 50.

 

[tarheelhockey]

View attachment 838087

 

[Kcoyote3]

What I like about Ovi is that he's scoring some around the netfront goals this season. He's been such a consistent evolver of his goal scoring ever since he came into the league and I think this is the next iteration. Park the frame in front, score some garbage. Plus blister some PPG's occasionally and the record will fall.

 

[Mulletman]

Ovechkin's 9 times leading the League in goals is certainly his greatest evidence for being the "greatest goal-scorer of all time". HIs possibly reaching 895 is not going to be any such evidence, in my opinion.

But, I know, some people are really hung up on career totals.

Well of course it's not, since you're one of the loudest voices, along with @Big Phil, a few years back who said there was no way that Ovechkin would ever reach 895 goals. How about just admitting that you're wrong and give some praise to @Mulletman for being right instead.

 

[Beukeboom]

Remember that thread asking if he would score 20 this year?

Was that really such a crazy thread? If he ends up with say 25, that's not an enormous margin?

 

[SharksCyclops]

Was that really such a crazy thread? If he ends up with say 25, that's not an enormous margin?

Yeah, by all accounts this is a down year for him, even if we had to recalibrate our expectations after 30~ games. Even if he goes on a crazy tear and can somehow net 9 more by the end of the season, 30 goals would still be much less than we anticipated/hoped for.

 

[TJHKY]

 

[Zuluss]

Was that really such a crazy thread? If he ends up with say 25, that's not an enormous margin?

If someone said before 2021/22 that Ovechkin would drop below 40 goals, and Ovechkin potted 50, that wasn't a truly biased forecast, right? Being 10+ goals off on a 50-goal season is about the same as being 5+ goals off on a 25-goal season, right?

 

[TJHKY]

 

[banks]

Also has 23 points in his last 21 games.

13 of those points are goals, too. That's 50 goal pace in the last 21 games.

 

[BallardEra]

Yeah, by all accounts this is a down year for him, even if we had to recalibrate our expectations after 30~ games. Even if he goes on a crazy tear and can somehow net 9 more by the end of the season, 30 goals would still be much less than we anticipated/hoped for.

Perhaps on the low end.

30-40 goals would have been reasonable for an age 38 season.

If he gets to 30 then that means he scored 22 goals in his last 36 games which is a 50 goal pace over 82 games.

Then you need to ask what was bothering him that had him at a 15 goal pace over 82 games in the other 43 games.

The question could still be asked now.

 

[Lshap]

Perhaps on the low end.

30-40 goals would have been reasonable for an age 38 season.

If he gets to 30 then that means he scored 22 goals in his last 36 games which is a 50 goal pace over 82 games.

Them you need to ask what was bothering him that had him at a 15 goal pace over 82 games in the other 43 games.

The question could still be asked now.

Let's hope there WAS something bothering him. Ovechkin can recover and move on from 'something'... provided it's not age.

 

[Firsov99]

What I like about Ovi is that he's scoring some around the netfront goals this season. He's been such a consistent evolver of his goal scoring ever since he came into the league and I think this is the next iteration. Park the frame in front, score some garbage. Plus blister some PPG's occasionally and the record will fall.

He actually started scoring more goals in front of the net when Barry Trotz became the coach. But you are absolutely right about him being a “consistent evolver”. This trait has played a very important role in his goal-scoring longevity. The older he becomes, the more the “garbage goals” add to the total.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Extra funny because Pens made win now moves and gave up their first

The Pens have traded away 8 of their 12 previous first round draft picks during the Crosby era.

Then Pens fans parrot memes claiming the Capitals have sacrificed everything to get Ovechkin the goals record.

Meanwhile the Capitals have largely kept their first round draft picks and now they have young cheap depth on the roster with more on the way.

Of course now that the Penguins are scorched Earth, all the Crosby fans want Sid to jump ship.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Ovechkin has been touted by many as the greatest goal scorer ever since around the time he scored his 600th. However I feel about him, passing Gretzky doesn’t make him the greatest goal scorer ever to just about anyone. Both sides of that opinion have already been formed and I suspect it is an extremely small number of people who will change their mind either way, if or when it happens.

As an example, LeBron passed Kareem in all-time points. Neither are considered the greatest scorers in NBA history, even though they’ll almost assuredly be the only two players to have owned the record for at least an 80 year period (1984 to 2023 to ? at least 2064 and beyond). This is similar to the goals record, though Gretzky owns more of a claim since he is the quickest to 300, 400, and so on, as well as owning some of top seasons as an individual. On the flip side, at least Ovechkin led the league in goals 9 times compared to my basketball example where Kareem and LeBron combined for just 3 scoring titles, 2 and 1 respectively.

I’ve never seen anything from Ovechkin that even made me pause to consider that he was a greater goal scorer than even Mario Lemieux.

That's an interesting take. Wrong, but interesting.

The thing about Lemieux is, he has neither this highest goal scoring season of his era, or the highest adjusted goal scoring season of his era, or the highest GPG season of his era, or the highest adjusted GPG of his era.

Ovechkin has all 4.

In fact Ovechkin had a higher adjusted GPG than Lemieux, and he carried it through hundreds more games than Mario could.

And despite missing half a career's worth of games, Lemieux still didn't lead the NHL in GPG as many times as Ovie has.

And Ovechkin's peak goal scoring season is at least even with Lemieux's.

The one area where Lemieux has an advantage is playoff GPG. Aside from that - peak, prime, longevity, volume, -taken together Ovechkin has Lemieux soundly beaten.

Here's a bunch of data. Nobody has a better case for greatest goal scorer than Ovechkin, and it's not particularly close at this point.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

The Pens have traded away 8 of their 12 previous first round draft picks during the Crosby era.

Then Pens fans parrot memes claiming the Capitals have sacrificed everything to get Ovechkin the goals record.

Meanwhile the Capitals have largely kept their first round draft picks and now they have young cheap depth on the roster with more on the way.

Of course now that the Penguins are scorched Earth, all the Crosby fans want Sid to jump ship.

No one wants Sid to jump ship. Stop this stupidity.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Who would have thought Ovechkin would lead his team to the playoffs this year while Crosby missed

To be fair, Ovi has been a big part of their recent surge for the Caps but their youth has really driven the play of this team as has the incredible play of Charlie Lindgren aka Chuckie Sideburns. Young cats like Connor McMichael, Hendrix Lapierre, Ivan Miroschnichenko, Alexsei Protas, and Beck Malenstyn have been terrific and their skating has injected much needed speed into the Caps’ aging lineup.

Also to be fair to Sid, he’s had an unbelievable season and his teammates have let him down. The Pens pissed away a terrific season by Crosby which has to be frustrating.

 

[Human]

The Pens have traded away 8 of their 12 previous first round draft picks during the Crosby era.

Then Pens fans parrot memes claiming the Capitals have sacrificed everything to get Ovechkin the goals record.

Meanwhile the Capitals have largely kept their first round draft picks and now they have young cheap depth on the roster with more on the way.

Of course now that the Penguins are scorched Earth, all the Crosby fans want Sid to jump ship.

The Pens have also 3 Cups to show for it… The Capitals won’t ever win 3 Cups…

 

[Misery74]

The Pens have traded away 8 of their 12 previous first round draft picks during the Crosby era.

Then Pens fans parrot memes claiming the Capitals have sacrificed everything to get Ovechkin the goals record.

Meanwhile the Capitals have largely kept their first round draft picks and now they have young cheap depth on the roster with more on the way.

Of course now that the Penguins are scorched Earth, all the Crosby fans want Sid to jump ship.

This is the truth:

2018 first - Alexeyev (regular on defense)
2019 first - McMichael (top line center)
2020 first - Lapierre (looks absolutely incredible)
2022 first - Miroschinenko (strong kid, huge shot)

Carberry has blended old and young.

 

[Toby91ca]

Yeah, by all accounts this is a down year for him, even if we had to recalibrate our expectations after 30~ games. Even if he goes on a crazy tear and can somehow net 9 more by the end of the season, 30 goals would still be much less than we anticipated/hoped for.

Really though? 30 goals would still be "much less" than we anticipated/hoped for? I guess it seems low on the surface, but at some point we need to consider reality as well, he's getting older and slowing down, he simply wont' score at the same rate and the slow down isn't usually gradual and sometimes you'll see dips and then increases and sometimes you'll see drastic drops that never come back, etc. Either way, scoring 40 goals at 37 doesn't make me confident he scores 40 again at 38, etc. Would it shock me? No, but thinking logically about it.....where he was tracking earlier this year was a bit of a shock, very significant drop....but I wouldn't necessarily have been comfortable putting a significant monetary bet down that he would hit 30 this year. Like always, guys do get hot....so 13 goals in last 21 games is a very good hot streak, but not the type of pace he's going to keep for a full season anymore.

 

[Phil Kessels Hot Dog]

The Pens have traded away 8 of their 12 previous first round draft picks during the Crosby era.

Then Pens fans parrot memes claiming the Capitals have sacrificed everything to get Ovechkin the goals record.

Meanwhile the Capitals have largely kept their first round draft picks and now they have young cheap depth on the roster with more on the way.

Of course now that the Penguins are scorched Earth, all the Crosby fans want Sid to jump ship.

Caps have cheap depth, Pens have 3 cups

Congrats???