It’s a valid point that you can’t refute. Either Ovi passes Gretzky or he doesn’t. He gotta pass him to be the greatest
What probability do you feel Ovechkin has to catch Gretzky now?
- Thread starter Big Phil
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exactly all these young guys think the league is so hard and Ovi Crosby and mcdavid are so great. Gretzky did that and Mario came back after being on the shelf for 3.5 years and dominated. The all time greats would dominate regardless
Of era
InfinityIggy
Zagidulin's Dad
I’d peg it at around 25% now. Which is a shame. Had it not been for lockouts and shortened seasons through his career we might be talking about if he had an outside shot at 1000 goals instead.
More sad for the fans than for Ovi.
The players are every bit as culpable for the lockouts as the owners. They asked for those to happen too.
Alexander the Gr8
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No he doesn’t. Ovi didn’t play in an era where goaltenders were Swiss cheese and could be scored on from the blue line without a screen.
Green
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none, the pandemic ended him, he would have very likely done it had it not been for the pandemic as he was in a groove, but as I figured the missing 50+ games especially this stage in his career was critical, now I am sure he is thinking about it more and trying to make up for the games he missed and it is just making it harder when before it was natural, he would have easily played into his 40s even it meant notching only 10-15 goals a year until he did it
Why wasn't anyone else scoring at Gretzkys pace then
at the height of the dead puck era a broken Wayne Gretzky was 4th in scoring. The guy would absolutely dominate in today’s game, and so would Mario. Perhaps you didn’t see them play or forgotten. Ovi is a generational talent but to be considered the best he’s going to need to pass the great one.
Hank Plank
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Seeing the goal scoring record is relative to other players...do I really need to further explain?
Zero. Its too bad hes basically missed two full seasons due to lockouts/Covid as I think he definitely could have done it if not for that.
Will still go down as the best or one of the best goal scorers of all time to anyone except G/60 users.
Will still go down as the best or one of the best goal scorers of all time to anyone except G/60 users.
JasonRoseEh
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Because the league was definitely open and chalk full of Europeans, let alone 6'2 235lbs freight trains....learn hockey buddy.
filinski77
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Because Gretzky was better than his peers over the course of his career. Just like Ovechkin was.
The difference is that due to the scoring environment, Gretzky and his peers were all scoring 20-30% more than Ovechkin and his peers were.
I Hate Blake Coleman
Bandwagon Burner
I dont think Ovechkin will reach it at this point. He is still probably in the conversation for the best goal scorer ever imo.
Chips
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He missed four games and tends to start slow mind you, before scoring 15 in 15 every year
That said, I always thought it was iffy, but even still I already consider him the best goal scorer so I don’t lose sleep over it; obviously some time in a lower scoring era, pandemic, lockouts, a shit coach who made him play the right side and all around made the team suck, another shit coach who somehow managed to f*** up the Powerplay and never attempted to fix it, and a third coach who was Dale Hunter and completely threw away offense to play a full trap/defense game
That said, I always thought it was iffy, but even still I already consider him the best goal scorer so I don’t lose sleep over it; obviously some time in a lower scoring era, pandemic, lockouts, a shit coach who made him play the right side and all around made the team suck, another shit coach who somehow managed to f*** up the Powerplay and never attempted to fix it, and a third coach who was Dale Hunter and completely threw away offense to play a full trap/defense game
Beukeboom
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Ovie has lost around 65 games due to lockouts and Covid during his active career. And I would say it is pretty certain he would have gone to the NHL a year earlier without the lost season, so you could prob add another 80 games there.
Gretzky lost 60-65 games in his active career to lockouts and the seasons being shorter than now during his prime.
Everyone has lost time to one thing or another. There is no way of telling how many goal Ovie would have scored had there been no lock out during his potential rookie year. And had there been no lockout, you could further argue the dead puck era would have continued. Then it's more a matter of subtracting goals.
So hence we'll have to stick with what we got, and leave the "what if's".
Shit coach was one of the best pure passers ever and figured ovie on his off wing would have better angles which is true it just didn't work also that was the year ovie made the Allstar team at both wings
The same type of comment can be said about Wayne Gretzky and Gary Suter.
Suter ruined a couple of seasons for Gretzky.
Alexander the Gr8
Registered User
Why hasn’t anyone scored at Ovechkin’s pace in his era? Same reason why - they were the best in their respective eras.
Alexander the Gr8
Registered User
If we’re going to bring up Mario, then Bossy is the best of all time based on imaginary scenarios where they both got to play their entire careers.
InfinityIggy
Zagidulin's Dad
People love to throw the what if but the fact is Wayne did. There's no arguing it. He played against the competition of his day and dominated them like no one else ever has. You watch a Caps PP and Ovi doesn't even move. He just hangs out off to the side and waits for that shot. He could do that until he's 50, but I don't think he will. He seems like one of those dudes who would like to go home and play a few years like Datsyuk did.
People need to realize 2 players have scored more than 160 points in the league, and only 5 scored more than 150. Gretzky and Mario still put up huge totals at the height of the dead puck era, both were old broken players at this point of their career. Prime Gretzky and Mario would easily put up 60/70 in today’s game, and I think they have a chance of breaking 150 points.
Ovi is a generational player but a notch below those two on every level
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