Oilers reporter under fire for dissing Alexander Ovechkin

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Liam McCormick
March 19, 2024 (4:07 PM)

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Last night, Alexander Ovechkin furthered his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's all time goal record as he scored two against the Calgary Flames. Now 38 years old, Ovechkin's two last night gave him 21 this season, and 843 in his career. At this point in the season, it's clear that Ovechkin's production has fallen off with his age, and one Oilers reporter called him out for it.

Are we really celebrating Ovechkin scoring his 20th goal of the season in mid-March?
-Mark Spector

Of course it isn't overly impressive to score 20 or 30 goals in today's NHL where 60 goal scorers are becoming more common - but considering context, this is a ridiculous take from Spector. Ovechkin pacing to score nearly 30 goals at age 38 on a Capitals team that bares no resemblance to their best seasons is very impressive. Wayne Gretzky only scored 9 goals in his final season, and he was the same age Ovechkin is now. If not for pandemics and lockouts, it's possible Ovechkin would be closing in on the record now.

For many of these reasons, fans gave Spector quite the amount of flak for his take of not being impressed by Ovechkin anymore.

Ovechkin is now officially 51 goals behind Gretzky for the all time record for goals scored. If he keeps up his recent hot streak he can make a serious dent in the gap, and he'll have two more seasons left on his contract before he's announced he'll retire. He still needs to keep up a respectable pace into his age 41 season to take the record from Gretzky, and for that he should absolutely be commended.