Ovechkin milestone thread - 850 and Beyond!

[pezpunk]

A big factor of that was he was likely playing with some sort of injury, but more likely was not as physically fit as usual due to having been in Russia grieving over his father. Then, he came back and was saddled with a crippled Backstrom and a completely checked out Kuznetsov as his centers, he was in no way set up for success earlier this season.

Strome was Ovi’s center for all but a handful of games. I’m the biggest Ovi homer there is, but Backy/Kuzy is not a valid excuse.

Honestly I think the phantom injury excuse gets thrown around way too often when beloved players slump. I think it was a combo of extremely bad luck and him being out of shape.

 

[ricky0034]

He’s literally scored 500 goals since he was “solved”

The man who solved Alex Ovechkin

The amount of theories behind the Washington Capitals’ underachievement are only eclipsed by the amount of theories surrounding the decline in Alex Ovechkin’s production over the last few seasons. Everybody has one. No one knows for certain. But in both … <a...

sports.yahoo.com

that article is so dumb

harps on how he only had 1 goal and 1 assist in the 4 games that the Capitals lost that series but completely ignores how he had 4 goals and 4 assists in the other 3 games in that same exact series

 

[PhilJets]

Ovi’s going to break the record…

What’s crazy is after he breaks the goals record Gretzky has 1200 points more than him still. That’s insane , not comparing to Ovie but how great #99 was

 

[Randyne]

Ovi’s going to break the record…

What’s crazy is after he breaks the goals record Gretzky has 1200 points more than him still. That’s insane , not comparing to Ovie but how great #99 was

Gretzky was humble. Any of top players could hit more than 3k points if they were untouchable like him. Just stand behind the net and spam assists. It's not that hard.

 

[chi777]

#9 All-time by Primary points:

#	Player	GP	G	A1	Primary P
1​	Wayne Gretzky	1487​	894​	1324​	2218​
2​	Gordie Howe	1767​	801​	746​	1547​
3​	Jaromir Jagr	1733​	766​	684​	1450​
4​	Mark Messier	1756​	694​	751​	1445​
5​	Marcel Dionne	1348​	731​	662​	1393​
6​	Ron Francis	1731​	549​	797​	1346​
7​	Mario Lemieux	915​	690​	654​	1344​
8​	Steve Yzerman	1514​	692​	650​	1342​
9​	Alexander Ovechkin	1414​	848​	426​	1274​
10​	Phil Esposito	1282​	717​	556​	1273​

I guess the question is, Can OV break the record in fewer games?

 

[Demandedace]

Strome was Ovi’s center for all but a handful of games. I’m the biggest Ovi homer there is, but Backy/Kuzy is not a valid excuse.

Honestly I think the phantom injury excuse gets thrown around way too often when beloved players slump. I think it was a combo of extremely bad luck and him being out of shape.

Incorrect. Ovi spent a large amount of time with Kuzy as his center - Carbs was trying to use Ovi to spark Kuzy but instead just brought them both down. You can check Money Puck for this.

Additionally, kuzy was being shoehorned into our power play a ton a well which sapped it’s strength (another reason we started the first half of the year bottom 5 power play and are one of the top power plays since the ASG)

 

[vippe]

I guess the question is, Can OV break the record in fewer games?

Scoring at a 53-54 goal pace over the next 72 games is a tall order for anyone, even a 38-39 year old Ovechkin.

But hey, he's doing the best he can right now to give him better chance at it so I wouldnt put any money against it hah

 

[Acallabeth]

Strome was Ovi’s center for all but a handful of games. I’m the biggest Ovi homer there is, but Backy/Kuzy is not a valid excuse.

Honestly I think the phantom injury excuse gets thrown around way too often when beloved players slump. I think it was a combo of extremely bad luck and him being out of shape.

There isn't really any evidence for Ovechkin being out of shape. Stop this madness. It's so ironic how so many posters blamed Ovechkin's poor 1st half of the season on him not training hard enough and eating high-caloric food, only to see AO improving drastically after riding camels in a desert for a week and Kuznetsov leaving the roster.

And yeah, while Ovechkin has played with Strome more, he still played many games with Kuznetsov (who was godawful), and both Kuznetsov and Backstrom (who was completely done) played quite a bit on the PP when they were on the roster.

 

[Scintillating10]

He's not clutch player Gretzky was though. Ovechkin 45 overtime games, zero goals.

I remember Capitals being upset many playoffs by weaker teams. We Halakan them one year.

 

[Kuz]

He's not clutch player Gretzky was though. Ovechkin 45 overtime games, zero goals.

I remember Capitals being upset many playoffs by weaker teams. We Halakan them one year.

Still he has more more OTG than anyone else in the regular season is second in game winning goals all time and during Capitals cup run he had the most goals scored in a playoff after the lockout tied with Crosby 08/09 (The year Ovi had 11 goals in 14 games). Ovechkin was never the problem for the Capitals. It was building a balanced squad. During Ovechkin's prime year they had no capable defenders. Only Green where good and he was an offensive dman.

 

[SkinsFan09]

He's not clutch player Gretzky was though. Ovechkin 45 overtime games, zero goals.

I remember Capitals being upset many playoffs by weaker teams. We Halakan them one year.

Amazed he needed OT playing on an All Star team.

 

[Acallabeth]

He's not clutch player Gretzky was though. Ovechkin 45 overtime games, zero goals.
I remember Capitals being upset many playoffs by weaker teams. We Halakan them one year.

There was a recent post that highlighted that Ovechkin is actually the most clutch goal scorer of all time. OT goals, go-ahead goals, game-tying goals, first goals of the game - he's always #1.
The Capitals' poor playoff performance was always the issue of roster building, not Ovechkin.
Even in the Halak series Habs fans are so proud of, AO had 5 goals and 5 assists (unlike Alex Syomin who had 0 goals on like 50 shots).

 

[Firsov99]

Strome was Ovi’s center for all but a handful of games. I’m the biggest Ovi homer there is, but Backy/Kuzy is not a valid excuse.

Honestly I think the phantom injury excuse gets thrown around way too often when beloved players slump. I think it was a combo of extremely bad luck and him being out of shape.

So, riding camels is a great way to get oneself in shape? He had 10 days off during the All Star break, and he wasn’t training on most of those days obviously.

But maybe you are an expert on this. Would you recommend rest to someone who is out of shape?

 

[Chelis Chili]

OVECHKIN ECLIPSES 25 GOALS AS CAPITALS OVERTAKE RED WINGS FOR PLAYOFF SPOT
Alex Ovechkin (26-32—58 in 67 GP) tallied twice to become the third player in NHL history with 18 career 25-goal seasons (also Gordie Howe & Jaromir Jagr) and Charlie Lindgren turned aside all 27 shots he faced as the Capitals (35-26-9, 79 points) leapfrogged the idle Red Wings (36-29-6, 78 points) for the Eastern Conference’s final Wild Card spot.

* Ovechkin (848-695—1,543 in 1,414 GP), whose two-tally afternoon came one day after the 30-year anniversary of “The Great One” getting his League record-setting 802nd career goal, has 8-1—9 over his last five games and sits just 46 back of Wayne Gretzky (894-1,963—2,857 in 1,487 GP) on the NHL’s all-time list. Ovechkin’s latest multi-goal game was witnessed first-hand by his sons, Sergei and Ilya.

sauce: https://media.nhl.com/public/news/17850

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

He's not clutch player Gretzky was though. Ovechkin 45 overtime games, zero goals.

I remember Capitals being upset many playoffs by weaker teams. We Halakan them one year.

If we're going to use playoff OT goals as a criteria, guess who else never scored a playoff OT goal?

Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe.

He can be clutch, it's just that it takes a team to win in hockey. Not many players have this in their trophy case:

 

[TJHKY]

 

[TJHKY]

 

[um]

Incorrect. Ovi spent a large amount of time with Kuzy as his center - Carbs was trying to use Ovi to spark Kuzy but instead just brought them both down. You can check Money Puck for this.

Additionally, kuzy was being shoehorned into our power play a ton a well which sapped it’s strength (another reason we started the first half of the year bottom 5 power play and are one of the top power plays since the ASG)

Yep.

I love what Carberry has done for this team and I think he’s a great coach, but man did he suck at dealing with Kuznetsov. Though I emphasize as he is a rookie coach.

 

[BallardEra]

Yep.

I love what Carberry has done for this team and I think he’s a great coach, but man did he suck at dealing with Kuznetsov. Though I emphasize as he is a rookie coach.

Ya but at the same time we don't know what the GM told Carberry and what he had promised Kuznetsov too.

I'm sure the plan was to play him hoping he was good and upped his trade value.

 

[um]

Ya but at the same time we don't know what the GM told Carberry and what he had promised Kuznetsov too.

I'm sure the plan was to play him hoping he was good and upped his trade value.

Whatever it was it wasn’t worth it. Kuznetsov was by far the worst player on our team and playing him as a 1C made this season much more challenging than it needed to be.

 

[Firsov99]

Yep.

I love what Carberry has done for this team and I think he’s a great coach, but man did he suck at dealing with Kuznetsov. Though I emphasize as he is a rookie coach.

Carbery undeniably has some coaching talent. And he is still so young. I hope that the Caps could be set at this position for a long time.

Older, more experienced coach would have probably pulled the plug on Kuzy earlier. But at least it’s better late than never.

 

[Neil Racki]

I honestly dont see much changing with Ovi skating from beginning of the season compared to now after the Allstar break.

He has zero acceleration but hes been smart this year. When he gets the puck at a standstill he quickly plays it. Its made his passing and creativity more visible imo.

First half of the season he'd laser one to the corner and the goalie would make a miraculous save. Now those lasers are going in and he's getting other pucks to go home.

Puck luck evening out over a longer sample size imo more than any one thing.

I still think he ends up 8 goals short and he's totally cool with it.

 

[BallardEra]

I still think he ends up 8 goals short and he's totally cool with it.

So you think he's only going to score 38 more goals the rest of his career?

 

[pezpunk]

lol at the haters desperately clinging to whatever scrap of negativity they can by liking my prior post. What cowards.

 

[Firsov99]

I honestly dont see much changing with Ovi skating from beginning of the season compared to now after the Allstar break.

He has zero acceleration but hes been smart this year. When he gets the puck at a standstill he quickly plays it. Its made his passing and creativity more visible imo.

First half of the season he'd laser one to the corner and the goalie would make a miraculous save. Now those lasers are going in and he's getting other pucks to go home.

Puck luck evening out over a longer sample size imo more than any one thing.

I still think he ends up 8 goals short and he's totally cool with it.

Hmm, I don’t know, but I see a considerable difference in his play since the break.

He is obviously not beating anyone end to end (or even from the offensive blue line to the goal line) - he hasn’t been able to do so for many years now. But he has that jump now, his first several strides are much better. He is MUCH more involved in play now because of these crucial first several steps. This just makes a world of difference in his overall play in comparison to how he was doing in the first half of the season.