Alex Ovechkin scored n ° 894 “in theater and style”. His next goal will be even bigger

Washington – Often, perhaps Sunday, maybe Thursday – Alex Ovechkin will reach the summit.

In a career wedged with substantial objectives, none will remember him more than the following. We will talk about it, and we will do it in the greatest terms, because this is how everything works.

To say that he continues immortality, the whole fabric, would be incorrect; He’s a fish he caught a long time ago. He always continues something. The biggest record for his sport. The biggest name. The greatest number. Marking a goal is difficult. Mark them more than anyone, never, is something else, and Ovechkin is about to cross this door.

Friday evening, he struck.

Ovechkin started Washington’s capital match against Chicago’s Blackhawks with 892 goals, three to break the NHL NHL Wayne Gretzky career record. He finished it with 894. He was a few centimeters from 895. And 896. And 897.

A different night, in a set of different circumstances, it would be considered a kind of disappointment. Six games are left on the Washington regular season calendar – starting with the match on Sunday against the New York Islanders – which makes the record for the record. However, only two of these matches are in Capital One Arena, in front of the fans who love her the most. If you turn for the dream script, this piece of mathematics is not nice.

However, what Ovechkin obtained on Friday evening – what he gave to the people present, and the way he gave them – was more than good enough.

“Everyone has seen it here,” said his longtime teammate Tom Wilson. “Everyone in the building was able to experience it. Everyone in this locker room was able to 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 race on discs on Friday evening, you have not been careful. It is not only a question of his CV, so remarkable as remarkable; This is how he has played in the past few weeks. He had scored in each of his last three games. He had not experienced more than two goalless games since January 1st. For the season, in a way, he was peeling off at a rate of 54 goals, which Waylaid only by a broken leg – and much more briefly than the 39 -year -old young man.

In hockey, nothing is really inevitable. The margins are too thin. The game, by definition, is too chaotic. Ovechkin, however – scoring in clusters and doing it early – is as close as possible.

Dylan Strome made it. Since he joined the Capitals in 2022, he helped over more Ovechkin’s goals than anyone: 44 and, at the start of the night, 19 this season. The crowd singing the name of Ovechkin stronger and longer than ever, until the washer of the washer is a clue.

“We said in a way before the match if he obtained one in the first, so look because he seems to mark in clusters,” said Strome. “Everyone knew what was going on.”

And it happened quickly. Ovechkin, 3 minutes, 52 seconds after the start of the match, and during his second quarter of work, he went after the Blackhawks Spencer Knight goalkeeper. Chicago, in one way or another, lost it at the bottom of the right circle. Food, of course, came from strome. N ° 893.

If you were asking the biggest fan of Ovechkin to imagine one of his goals – to find the platonic ideal – it would have been n ° 894. With 13:47 to play and the capitals on the power game, defender John Carlson mixed the washer in Ovechkin, who was waiting in the dowry against the left. He beat Knight more cleanly and in a tighter window than the first time.

Only Nicklas Backstrom has set over Ovechkin’s goals than Carlson. The two won the Stanley Cup together in 2018, with Ovechkin as the best player on the team and Carlson as the best defender.

Carlson, like Strome, was impressed. He was not surprised.

“It seemed to be one of these days that when guys who are greater than life like him – anyone who works for something else would probably not have happened,” said Carlson. “But the greats of the great of the great people just find a way to do it and do it in theater and in style, and tonight was not different.”

Ovechkin ovation received, lasted, given or taken, six minutes. The songs started and they did not stop. Ovechkin took the time to celebrate with his teammates, who joined him on the ice. “We have sort of look at each other (on the bench) and we just said like:” Va-le, I’m going “,” said Wilson.

He showed the sky in homage to his brother Sergei, who died at the age of 10. He celebrated with his wife, Nastya, and his son – also Sergei, of course – along the glass.

He also turned to the man he had just joined and which he will soon leave the company and paid tribute.

“The just seeing skating and bowing in front of Wayne’s box, it was just chills,” said Wilson. “It was just something that everyone dreams of being part and having a seat in the front row and seeing him – I am so proud of him and so happy for him.”

About an hour after the match, Ovechkin and Gretzky were sitting together in the Emour, an outdoor theater in front of the arena. With a backdrop “GR8 Chase” behind them, flanked a bath of Bud Light Tall Boys, the two legends answered questions at the moment and its meaning. Gretzky was graceful and funny; Ovechkin was relaxed and he said, relieved.

He also had jokes. He rubbed shoulders with Strome for rebounding a pass from the defender of the Blackhawks Connor Murphy and his former knight in the third period, rather than giving him a shot on a wide net. He gently corrected Gretzky, too, to have assumed that Ryan Leonard’s clear goal goal came to Ovechkin’s expense. It was his moment – maybe the biggest he will have in front of the capital fans – and he was in it.

“I’m still a little trembling and I still can’t believe it,” he said. “I just told my family yesterday and my stepfather asked:” How do you keep your energy, your mind? ” And I just said like: “I appreciate it”, because it is a huge opportunity. »»

He succeeded on Friday. And in due time, he will come back.

(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)