Alex Ovechkin takes shot at Gary Bettman over career goal record
Ovechkin claims he should have the all-time goal record if not for poor decisions from league.
After the Capitals' extremely successful offseason, it's become obvious that the team is really making a push while they still have Ovechkin around. Ovechkin has been their franchise cornerstone for almost two decades and is getting up there in age. Everyone is aware of his chase of Gretzky's all-time goal record, which Ovi seems to be positive that he should have passed already.
Ovechkin has an amazing point here, as he definitely would have had the record by now if not for these factors. Ovechkin has been one of the game's most prolific scorers and has strung together some video game like seasons in his career.
Looking at the numbers, Ovechkin lost his whole 82 game rookie season to the 2004-05 labour strike. This was the result of owners complaining that players salaries were getting too high, resulting in the salary cap.
He then lost another 36 games in the 2012-13 season due to another lockout, during a season where he would've been on pace for 55 goals during a full season.
Finally he lost 37 games during the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic, where he was on pace for 45 goals. This results in a total of 155 games missed, while only being 42 short of the record.
Ovechkin easily would have destroyed the record if not for these factors that were out of his control. Especially considering two of these seasons were during his prime years, he would've been on his way to 1,000 goals scored by the time he retired. Thankfully it seems like he'll break the goal record anyway, and we're lucky as hockey fans to have been able to witness the career of an all-time great goal scorer.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Ovechkin could've hit 1,000 goals if not for lockouts and pandemic? | ||
| Yes, he would've hit the mark | 121 | 55.3 % |
| No, he still would've come up short | 98 | 44.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
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