Ovechkin Scores 600th Goal

[Mattman]

Definitely deserves his spot in the record books. Go Ovi go. He's due for a cup.


Also #### off Byfuglien, knocking away the 600th goal puck like that. Punk.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by codynw

Why is 800 a stretch? The guy has never scored less than 30 goals, and he only needs 200 to get there. If he stays healthy and doesn't retire too early, I think 800 would be easy.

While I don't think 800 is a stretch, I don't think 800 is easy either.

There's two people in the history of the league that scored more than 800 goals.

There's been several players that have had career goal numbers similar to Ovechkin at the same age.

You can remove the obvious like Lemieux and Bossy due to injuries and Bobby Hull due to the WHLA. But Dionne (731), Yzerman (692), Jagr (766) Gartner (708), Esposito (717), Kurri (601), Brett Hull (741) and Robitaille (668) all had reached 550 goals by the time they were 33.

Lucky Luc in particular I would say is a cautionary tale. He was 32, like Ovechkin, and scoring 40 goals, averaging over 0.5 goals a game throughout his career. 34 he scores 37 goals, at 35 he scores 30 goals. And then he falls off a cliff after finally getting his name on the Cup, scores 11 as a 36 year old and is all but done. If we had the same conversation about Robitaille when he was 32, we would be saying that 700, if not 750, would be easy for him to reach but he finished with 668.

When you start talking about Ovechkin needing to average nearly 30 goals a game until he is 40, that's not easy.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

When you start talking about Ovechkin needing to average nearly 30 goals a game until he is 40, that's not easy.

Yeah for sure, but just think how insane his stats would be! He would retire with over 17000 goals!

[Oling_Roachinen]

Damn it, that’s the second time I’ve done that recently.

[crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Party Elephant

Yeah for sure, but just think how insane his stats would be! He would retire with over 17000 goals!

This is rapidly becoming my favorite joke!

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by codynw

Why is 800 a stretch? The guy has never scored less than 30 goals, and he only needs 200 to get there. If he stays healthy and doesn't retire too early, I think 800 would be easy.

Others have said it better than me already, but the short answer is the pace of the drop off in production.

He is a big physical beast with little injury history though, so could play long enough to get there, even if he never hits 40 again.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Ovechkin will never catch Gretzky and nor should he.

He scores a hell of a lot but overall it still doesn't help his team win when it counts. You can outscore (especially with special teams) problems in the regular season, but defensive play and even poor offensive decisions will catch up with you in the playoffs.

There are a ton of factors (not the least of which being luck) that have led Crosby to cups and Ovechkin to early playoff exits, but I think the differences are earned for the most part.

I don't think he deserves to be anywhere near the talk of 'greatest of all time'.

Complete and utter BS. Criticise his TEAMS all you want. But if you don't think individually he's among the greatest goal scorers of all time...then you are pretty much a lost cause. Very very strange that you wouldn't think him near the top of the goal scoring list...when all he's done for the past 12 years is lead the league in total goals during that span, win MVPs, win scoring titles, and win goal scoring titles. Winning a cup isn't suddenly going to make him among the best. He cemented that legacy a long time ago by being the very best goal scorer amongst his peers pretty much since the day he first stepped onto NHL ice.

Regardless, he is a treat to watch and no one in the league shoots the puck better then him. The Laine vs OV battle was pretty cool to see last night. Similar to how Crosby might pass the mantle to McDavid (ugggh), one day OV will pass it to Laine in similar fashion.

Without a single shred of doubt, he is near the top of the list of best goal scorers of all time and he fully deserves to win a cup.

[CroFlames]

If he finishes with 800 in this era, you must conclude he is the greatest scorer who ever lived. Yes, even better than Wayne.

Prime Ovi would have scored even more than 92 in 1981 on those stand-up goalies.

Ovi will never be considered the "greatest player" of all time, but scorer? I think he's in the thick of the conversation.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It's really hard to say how modern players would have performed in yesterday's game, whose style would be best suited, and if they'd have played differently under different circumstances. I mean, yeah, I agree, Ovi probably would have lit up stand-up goalies. But I think of a guy like Datsyuk, and what he would have done to the league if you put him in a time machine in 2008-2009, and took him back to 1980. Can you imagine?

[troutman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...Goals_per_Game

Regular season: Goals per Game

Minimum: 200 goals

1. Mike Bossy, 0.762
2. Cy Denneny, 0.756
3. Mario Lemieux, 0.754
4. Babe Dye, 0.742
5. Alexander Ovechkin, 0.626
6. Pavel Bure, 0.623
7. Wayne Gretzky, 0.601
8. Brett Hull, 0.584
9. Bobby Hull, 0.574
10. Tim Kerr, 0.565
11. Rick Martin, 0.561
12. Phil Esposito, 0.559
13. Maurice Richard, 0.556

[troutman]

Regular season: Goals

Further information: Goal (ice hockey)

1. Wayne Gretzky, 894
2. Gordie Howe, 801
3. Jaromir Jagr, 765
4. Brett Hull, 741
5. Marcel Dionne, 731
6. Phil Esposito, 717
7. Mike Gartner, 708
8. Mark Messier, 694
9. Steve Yzerman, 692
10. Mario Lemieux, 690
11. Teemu Selanne, 684
12. Luc Robitaille, 668
13. Brendan Shanahan, 656
14. Dave Andreychuk, 640
15. Joe Sakic, 625
    Jarome Iginla, 625
16. Bobby Hull, 610
17. Dino Ciccarelli, 608
18. Jari Kurri, 601
19. Alexander Ovechkin, 600
20. Mark Recchi, 577
21. Mike Bossy, 573
22. Joe Nieuwendyk, 564
    Mats Sundin, 564
23. Mike Modano, 561
24. Guy Lafleur, 560

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Kind of have to hand it to Hull and Bure, whose numbers were earned during the height of the dead puck era. Hull extended a bit before and afterwards but his prime was mid 90's.

[CroFlames]

It's such a shame Jarome and Ovi had to sit through two lockouts.

If Ovechkin didn't sit through 2005 and 2013, I bet he has 670 goals right now. 50 in his true rookie year, and an extra 20 in 2013.

[troutman]

It's funny to realize Mike Gartner has 108 more goals than Ovi.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

It's such a shame Jarome and Ovi had to sit through two lockouts.

The first thing that comes to mind when you mention that is the question of whether Jagr would be ahead of Gretzky if not for sitting through three lockouts and playing in Europe for four additonal seasons. I'm going to go with "yes".

[corporatejay]

Wow, Mark Recchi is sneaky good.