Alexander Ovechkin v. The World

[Robbob]

I think he has to get at least 10 more this season so has 2 seasons to get 49 goals. He will probably be lucky to be a 25 goal scorer in his last year. So if he does get a little bump of production next season, it will come down to the wire in that last season.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Robbob

I think he has to get at least 10 more this season so has 2 seasons to get 49 goals. He will probably be lucky to be a 25 goal scorer in his last year. So if he does get a little bump of production next season, it will come down to the wire in that last season.

Which is too bad - without the lockouts and covid he would have smashed this record in style, but now he's going to have to grind it out. With that said, he could still get hot and flirt with 30 this year and that makes it much more attainable.

[Dunnyberg]

Originally Posted by icarus

Apart from NYC, DC probably has the highest concentration of Russians in the US. Big community there.

Most "Russians" in the US aren't actually ethnic Russians, especially in NYC. Mostly Russian-speaking Jewish Ukrainians. Like Volodomyr Zelenskyy, who (believe it or not) didn't learn to speak Ukrainian until 2017.

[Groot]

2 more tonight for Ovi for 16 on the year. 8 goals in last 8 games. I think he definitely gets to at least 25 this year, probably higher.

[Tbull8]

Originally Posted by Groot

2 more tonight for Ovi for 16 on the year. 8 goals in last 8 games. I think he definitely gets to at least 25 this year, probably higher.

I hope he can somehow get to 30. He’s had at least 30 every year including the 48 game season

[lazypucker]

The Caps has 28 games left this season, plus another 2 seasons, Ovi has 200 games left in his current contract. He will get at least another 70-90 goals in this stretch if he can stay healthy.

Breaking Gretzky's record is never in doubt.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The Caps has 28 games left this season, plus another 2 seasons, Ovi has 200 games left in his current contract. He will get at least another 70-90 goals in this stretch if he can stay healthy.

Breaking Gretzky's record is never in doubt.

It will be a spectacle when he does, so I think even if he’s slowing creeping up to it, the Caps will support him until he hits the record.

[Hackey]

Ya there is no way the Caps aren't doing everything they can to help him break the record. Even if he's putting up 5 goals a year I'm sure their signing him if he's willing.

[rohara66]

Yea, there's about a 0% chance he retires from the NHL is he's short 10, 20 or even 30 goals from the record.

[TheIronMaiden]

56 goals to go with 89 fewer games played.

[OutOfTheCube]

It would be funny for him to break the record just for Matthews to roll along and break it again ten years down the road. Long way to go, I know, but at this point in his career he's just as prodigious of a goal-scoring talent as Ovechkin was.

[This post is terrible]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

It would be funny for him to break the record just for Matthews to roll along and break it again ten years down the road. Long way to go, I know, but at this point in his career he's just as prodigious of a goal-scoring talent as Ovechkin was.

Matthews doesn’t seem as durable as Ovechkin

[Heavy Jack]

I agree with that for sure, Ovi is built and has played like a tank pretty much his entire career. My fav hits of his are internationally too lol, when he layed out 44 year old Chelios I laughed out loud, his open ice hit on Jagr that lead to a goal was crazy too, calls it the best hit of his career.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by This post is terrible

Matthews doesn’t seem as durable as Ovechkin

I like Matthews and I think the way he's structured his contracts? That guy has a long, long career ahead of him.

[Funkhouser]

Overall Matthews is scoring at a higher rate than Ovechkin (I didn't compare at the similar stages of their career). Matthews tends to miss 10 games/yr, but Ovechkin lost two years to lockouts, so it should be kif-kif.

Will be interesting to see.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by Locke

I like Matthews and I think the way he's structured his contracts? That guy has a long, long career ahead of him.

I think he’s meaning just in general Ovi is a more durable individual; I’m sure Mathews is poised to have a long career, Crosby has and continues to have a long career for example. Ovi has had a much more healthy and consistent career especially when you compare games played it’s easy to see just how durable Ovi has been comparatively. Through his first 14 seasons he played less than 78 games only twice with one being a complete 48 games in the lockout shortened 12-13 season, the other being a 72 game 09-10 season.

With Covid it gets a bit wonky for Auston but he played a full 82 games in his rookie year and has basically not played a full season otherwise with 74 games being the high water and only 3 of 6 seasons not counting the Covid year in which he played at least 70 games.

With Crosby he had 4 pretty full seasons in his first 5 with a 53 game 07-08 sandwiched in the middle but then the concussion problems hit; its actually pretty incredible looking at Crosby’s DB when you consider everything he’s gone through.

[lazypucker]

While Matthews is scoring at a higher rate, but I am not sure if he has the same scoring consistency as Ovi does in 7-10 years.

[Robbob]

Where Matthews has a bit of an advantage is that he started playing in the NHL at 19. Ovechkin started a year later because of the lock out. At the age of 26, Matthews is sitting at 350 goals with 28 games remaining. At 26 Ovechkin had 339. The next year was a shorten season so he was sitting at 371 goals going into his age 28 season. Granted Ovechkin had 3 consecutive 50 goal seasons.

The next 4 years for Matthews I think will determine if he is in this conversation still. If he can also have some consecutive 50+ seasons, he could be ahead by 50+ goals of where Ovechkin at the age of 30.

[Groot]

I'm gonna assume Ovi breaks it and set his mark at 900 goals. So target for Matthews is 901.

He currently has 350, and I think he gets to 75 this year for a total of 374. That means he needs 527 goals to hit 901.

He'll be 27 to start next season. If he can maintain a high scoring pace he would need to average 52.7 goals per season to break it. If he does 60 average goals/season over his next 4 year contract, that will leave him with 287 to go. He would need 48.7 average over his next 6 years to hit 901.

I think there is a high likelihood that, barring any significant time missed, he will look to take the record in 10-11 years.

[lazypucker]

This shows you how crazy this record is. You have to score 50+ every year and have a 15+ year career to be anything close...