Washington – sometimes soon – Sunday, maybe, maybe Thursday – Alex Ovechkin gets to the top.
In a career stuck with subsequent goals, no one will remember more than others. Then we talk about it and do it in the most amazing conditions, because that all works.
Saying that they chase immortality, the whole substance would be incorrect; This is the fish he has long caught. But he is still chasing something. The biggest record in his sport. The biggest name. The largest number. Scoring one goal is difficult. Scoring more of them than anyone else, when, is something else, and Ovechkin is about to go through these doors.
He knocked on Friday evening.
Ovechkin launched Washington Capitals’ against Chicago Blackhawks with 892 goals, three from breaking career records of NHL Wayne Gretzky. Completed it with 894. He was from 895 inches and 896 and 897.
On another night, in other circumstances, would be qualified as a kind of disappointment. In the regular season of Washington, six Her-ups have a Sunday road match against New York Islanders-Coz makes a record almost sure. But only two of these games are in the Capital One Arena, before the fans who love him most. If you shoot for a dream scenario, this piece of mathematics is not kind.
Yet what Ovechkin got on Friday evening – what he gave people in participation and the way they gave them – was good enough.
“Everyone saw it,” said long -time teammate Tom Wilson. “Everyone in the building had to experience it. Everyone in this dressing must be part of it.”
Wayne Gretzky – 894 goals in 1487 games
Alex Ovechkin – 894 goals in 1486 games#Gr8chase pic.twitter.com/upnut6exye
– NHL (@nhl) April 5, 2025
If you doubted that Ovechkin would run in the record on Friday evening, you did not pay attention. It is not just his biography, remarkable as it is; The point is how he has played in the last few weeks. Scored in each of his last three games. Since January 1, no more than two games without target. For the season, somehow cropped at 54 goals, breaking only a broken leg-and more briefly than it would be outside.
Nothing is inevitable in hockey. The edges are too slim. The game is too messy by definition. Ovechkin, although – scoring in volumes, soon – is as close as you can get.
Dylan Tree realized it. Since he joined the capitals in 2022, he has helped more Ovechkin’s goals than anyone else: 44 and at the beginning of the night, 19 this season. The crowd sings Ovechkin’s name louder and longer than ever, until the puck dropped, was a leash.
“We were a little said before the game, when it gets it first, then look out because it seems that the score in bundles,” Strom said. “Everyone knew what was going on.”
And it happened quickly. Ovechkin, 3 minutes, 52 seconds into the game and on his second shift went to the goalkeeper Blackhawks Spencer Knight. Chicago somehow lost him at the bottom of the right circle. The feed naturally came from the tree. No. 893.
If you asked the biggest fan of Ovechkin to imagine one of his goals – come up with a platonic ideal – it would be No. 894. The remaining 13:47 and the capitals on the power game, defender John Carlson stirred Ovechkin, who waited in the left Faceoff Dot. He beat the knights cleaner and in a stricter window than the first time.
Only Nicklas Backstrom set more goals of Ovechkin than Carlson. Both won the Stanley Cup together in 2018, with Ovechkin as the best player of the team and Carlson as his best defender.
Carlson, like the tree, was impressed. He wasn’t surprised.
“It looked like one of those days that when there are boys who are more than life like him – anyone else who goes to something else would probably not happen,” Carlson said. “But the size of the giants of the giants just find a way to do it and do it in the theater and style, and tonight did not differ.”
Ovation Ovechkin received, lasted or lasted, six minutes. The singing began and did not stop. Ovechkin took the time to celebrate with his teammates who joined him on the ice. “We looked at each other (on the bench) and just said, like,” I’m training it, I’m going, “Wilson said.
In honor of his brother Sergei, he pointed to the sky he died when he was 10 years old. He celebrated with his wife Nasha and his son – of course, Sergei – along the glass.
He also turned to a man whose company had just joined and whose society would soon leave and paid tribute.
“He just saw him skating and bow to Wayne’s box, it was just tremor,” Wilson said. “It was just something that everyone dreams of being part of it, and having a seat in the front row and seeing the Ho-i am so proud of him and so happy for him.”
About an hour after the game, Ovechkin and Gretzky sat together in the district E, the open air theater opposite the arena. With the “G8 Chase” background behind them, lined the tub of tall boys from Bud Light, both legends answered questions about the moment and its meaning. Gretzky was kind and fun; Ovechkin was relaxed and, as he said, relieved.
He also had jokes. In the third period he begged the tree to jump the passage of the defender Blackhawks Connor Murphy and the last knight than to give him a chance on the wide net. Greedzky also gently corrected Gretzky, assuming that the empty clean target of Ryan Leonard came to Ovechkin’s costs. It was his moment – perhaps the largest that he would have in front of the Capitals fans and was there.
“He’s still shaking a little and I still can’t believe it,” he said. “I talked to my family yesterday and my father -in -law asked,” How do you keep your energy, your mind? “And I just said,” I’m just enjoying it, “because it’s a huge opportunity.
He got it on Friday. And he’ll do it again in time.
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
