Los Angeles, CA—If only Alexander Ovechkin had scored five goals against Anaheim on Tuesday night, fans of the LA Kings could have been treated to a four-goal performance that tied and broke the all-time regular season goals record.
You’re scoffing, but it’s not that far-fetched. 48 individual players have scored five goals in one game. Eight players have multiple five-goal games. 64 five-goal games have occurred in NHL history. And sure, some of those are back to the Newsy Lalonde era (Joe Malone was actually the first, in the NHL’s first game, in 1917) but to zoom to the near past, both Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux had four, five-goal games. And Tage Thompson have a five-goal game with Buffalo in December of 2022.
Perhaps the most famous five-goal game was when Gretzky was pursuing his 50-goals-in-50-games record. He went into game 39 with 45 goals. He exited with 50. And for you empty-net skeptics, his final one was into an open net.By the way, Gretzky entered game 38 with 41 goals, so he notched four goals one night and five the next on his way to the record.
But alas, Ovi didn’t do it in Anaheim, which would have set him up to break the magical 894 record with four goals versus LA. A person can dream, can’t he? So as the game Thursday against the Kings started, I was hoping for just one goal, number 887, to take home as a memory.
Ovechkin mostly floated at the left dot, sometimes ranging down to the crease, always with that familiar hop-hop skating motion. But don’t call him lazy. Twice in the first period, as LA penalties expired and the Kings rushed the puck back towards the Washington goal, it was Ovechkin who went hustling down after it to cover for his lost defense. Still, I wanted to see a goal.
In the second frame, the puck didn’t find him much, but he did rush two-on-one with Matt Roy, Ovechkin on Roy’s left. Roy kept the puck, firing one off the crossbar rather than giving #8 a pass. Ovechkin was later seen at left defense on the power play. He and the Capitals exited period two with no goals on the board.
Period three did have two goals scored with one knee down on a one-timer, but both were for the Kings, who ended the game with a three-goal shutout.
The Great Eight ended up with a stat line that looked like this: no shots, no goals, no hits, two giveaways. So fans, even those of the Kings, left the game with a little bit of an empty feeling. Ovi is now on a streak of two scoreless games and only one goal in the past four.
What happened? His coach had this to say: “Power play, right away, entries were a mess. When we did get in, we couldn’t execute, so I don’t even, I don’t think he [Ovechkin] touched the puck, let alone had a shot attempt on the power play. So power play, those three, and then five-on-five, his line, for the most part, was stuck in the defensive zone for the majority of the night.” He was also generally negative about his team’s play, saying they weren’t able to sustain enough pressure to threaten inside.
Jim Hiller of the Kings explained things this way: “It was everybody. Whoever happened to be on the ice against them, against him, and that’s the whole point of the night is at any point, everybody on the ice was in synch. They were playing, they were working, they didn’t give him much time and space. And of course our penalty kill did a real good job when we were shorthanded. That’s where Ovi is most dangerous, and we did a really good job taking him away.”
But let’s come full circle to think a little bit more about the surrounding contexts for this record. If I asked you to guess who had played more games to get to the point of the record, who would you say? A poll of hockey experts (mainly people in the Bob Miller Press Box) turned up about equal answers of “Gretzky” and “Ovechkin.” Several cited the fact that Ovechkin missed games in the partial lockout of 2012-13 (48 was a full season) and the Covid year (2020-21).
What nobody said but I looked up is that Ovi didn’t start in the NHL as an 18 year-old. He was with Moscow Dynamo his first four years in pro hockey, starting in 2001-02. He was born in 1985. He came to the NHL after the 2004-05 lockout season. So he might well have had two more years to score and be well over 900 goals by now if things had been different.
On the other hand, he is still playing at 39, where Gretzky retired in 1999, the year he turned 38. But here’s the surprise: If Ovechkin sets the mark in nine more games, he’ll have played 1484. Gretzky retired having played 1487. Hard to imagine that they’re essentially equal.
To get some perspective, I chatted with Dave Taylor, former Kings Captain, whose number 20 is retired by the team. Taylor played his entire career with LA, whereas, as we know, Gretzky played for four NHL teams, including his playoff appearance with the Blues in the spring of 1996.
“He sure scored against us as an Oiler,” Taylor said, adding, “I enjoyed watching him score more while he was with the Kings than with Edmonton.” Those were some great rivalry years, especially in the playoffs. But then Taylor got down to business.He obviously knows about the record, and Gretzky’s numbers, but he opened my eyes by pointing something out: “I think of Gretzky as a playmaker. You have to look at the assists, too,” because every assist, in a sense, is a goal Gretzky might have scored himself.
“He had his spots, playing behind the net, where he set up a lot of guys,” Taylor said. We looked up assist totals for each man. Gretzky had 1963. Ovechkin has 717. That puts Gretzky at roughly triple. Taylor’s point is well taken: If even a portion of those assists were goals, Gretzky’s total would still be in the far-off distance to Ovechkin.
I’ll add to that the following: Gretzky is thought of as a goal-scorer and points-producer, but his game was considerably more well-rounded than Ovechkin’s because he was a playmaker above all.
You’ve also got to look at the playoffs. There, Gretzky appeared in 208 games, and Ovechkin in 151 so far. Goals totals: #99 had 122. #8 has 72. Take that for what it’s worth, but until Ovechkin pots a bunch more, Gretzky is the goals king. Ovechkin has 958 total, Gretzky 1016. Factor the post-season how you want, but those are the absolute numbers.
There’s also the point that different eras make for uneven comparisons, and that’s true. Goalies were half the size in Gretzky’s era. There was a lot more space for the puck to get by them. On the other hand, sticks were heavier and skating was slower, leading to less dangerous offensive opportunities. Gretzky had to work within the limitations of the game in his day. Ovechkin has to work within the limitations of his era, with mostly huge goalies that leave only tiny holes to squeeze a puck through. Each has thrived in the conditions facing him. Thus no matter what goals totals Ovechkin ends with, he’s great. But just not The Great One. That will always be Gretzky, no matter if this regular-season goals record tumbles.
Notes
Washington now moves on north to San Jose for a Saturday game.
Listen to the Puck Podcast on your favorite podcast provider or catch their show on YouTube. Look for “Puck Podcast TV.” Also check out Locked On LA Kings.
