Alex Ovechkin confirms it: he doesn’t want to break the record with an empty net

Dose
Crédit:

We witnessed a historic moment in the National hockey League last night, as the record for most career goals by Wayne Gretzky was tied by none other than Alexander Ovechkin.

The number 8 of the Washington Capitals scored two goals in a 5-3 win for the Capitals over the Chicago Blackhawks, which allowed him to catch up with Gretzky at the top.

It was a completely crazy evening in Washington, and this evening could have been even crazier if Ovechkin had scored a third goal in this game.

He would have thus tied and broken the record in one evening with a hat-trick.

It would have been clearly magical.

Moreover, several people thought he would score a third, especially when the Blackhawks pulled their goalkeeper at the end of the third period.

However, as many have been talking about for a while, breaking the record on an empty net would clearly not have the same effect.

This historic moment that would be viewed thousands and thousands of times would lose some of its charm if it were achieved with a goal without a goalkeeper in front of the net.

And fortunately, Ovechkin agrees, he who confirmed not wanting to break the record with an empty net.

The “Great 8” could have been on the ice to try to score his third goal of the game in an empty net, and thus break the record, but in the end, he told his coach, Spencer Carbery, that he didn’t want to jump into the fray.

It was finally Ryan Leonard who sealed the outcome of the game by scoring the empty net goal, he who by the same token scored his first goal in the National hockey League.

Of course, it doesn’t have the same magnitude as the goal that would have allowed Ovi to surpass Gretzky, but still, in Leonard’s place, I don’t know if I would have wanted to score my first goal in the National hockey League in an empty net.

In short, in the end, it’s good news to know that Ovi doesn’t want to break the record with an empty net, because it confirms that we will have a goal worthy of the record that will be scored.

Of course, we all hope that it will be a signature Ovechkin goal, either a shot on a powerplay or a deke.

Wayne Gretzky must also think so, he who was on site last night.

Additionally, it’s also a great moment to have the two best scorers in National hockey League history tied at the top for a while.

Tying and breaking the record in two steps gives us two historic moments filled with emotions, which is clearly not a bad thing.

Moreover, note that if Ovechkin scores at least one goal in his next game, on Sunday at 12:30 against the Islanders in New York, Ovi will have more goals than Gretzky having played the same number of games, namely 1487.

Overtime

– A well-deserved nice gesture.

– Magical.

– What an incredible season for the Trois-Rivières Lions. They were close to disappearing about a year ago, and now they’re division champions.

– The Minnesota Wild should start looking in their rearview mirror.

– Wow, what a performance.

– Incredible.