Record from "Office"

It should be careful with the word “eternal” that it does not detract from the outstanding achievement of the hockey player Alexander Ovechkin

Everything someday ends, even great chases. Ovechkinskaya could not end in failure, which became completely clear this spring. The conversations that it would be better to surpass the “eternal” record of the great Wayne Gretzka next season were absolutely meaningless. As well as conversations about the supposedly desire of the pursuer to beat the record certainly in Washington, that is, at home, with their own public, the basis of which are people of the eight of the eighth issue of “Capitels”.

Nothing in sports can be postponed for later, calculating the most successful moment for PR and celebration. There is something to be afraid - cracks in the ice, an unsuccessful fall, an accidental arrival of a puck, but anything can happen, destroying the beautiful -sided plans at one moment. Therefore, in the final phase, the large “catch -up” Alexander Ovechkin did not take anything artificial - except perhaps a decisively expressed unwillingness to throw “that very puck” into the empty gates in the last seconds of a home meeting with Chicago. Otherwise, everything went on as usual.

His great predecessor (now the predecessor), a person with a non -hockey, rather kinematographic appearance and Slavic roots, very accurately felt the moment when it was necessary to appear directly within the event expected by the sports world. That is, in Washington at the Washington match with Chicago, and then in New York at the Washington game with Ailelanders.

I pay tribute to the sincere nobility of the best player in the history of the strongest hockey league of the world-nevertheless, in front of Gretzki, they took the title of the greatest sniper, which belonged to him more than 30 years, and what was taken away honestly does not change things.

However, the fact that Wayne Gretzky remains the most, even after the fall of his record (maybe the main thing in a series of achievements of the Canadian phenomenon), there is no doubt. He has a lot of something behind him, on the same bombardier achievement with goals and productive transmissions, you should not even wave. By the way, as for the sniper record, we accept precisely the North American version, taking into account the abandoned goals only in the regular championship, and if we take into account the playoffs (we do it at the home level), we can hardly encroach on the overall result of Wayne Gretzky and Ovechkin with all his indefatigue.

All this applies to statistics not only in a separate sport, but also in a single league - that is, a story, in essence, is local, against the background of humanity, including right now, completely far from global problems and challenges. But it would be reckless to judge that the worldwide made it exclusively PR - no, this very humanity in its struggle for existence and with itself are needed, even fragrances, the zone of salvation both from existence and specific misfortunes are vital. Sport is one of these zones, hockey is a significant part of them, and the North American hockey league is a sign is enough for its heroes to at least hear that part of humanity that does not care about big sport.

And in this great pursuit of this great pursuit, there was something again the people far from the “heads-strokes” of people. This “something” became both the figure of the only pursuer, and the very possibility of making the impossible.

Sasha Ovechkin, who got into the meat -grinder North American hockey paradise 20 years ago, was not, and now he is not “the most talented Russians” if we take the sum of the main professional qualities. There were and are the forwards much more harmonious, starting with Alexander Mogilny and Sergey Fedorov, continuing Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeny Malkin, ending with Artem Panarin and Nikita Kucherov - the word "ending" here is not entirely appropriate, others will be. And Alexander the Great, with his delightful style monotony, surpassed everyone, because only he realized his main skill with all the amazing imagination, holding the level for 20 years. Of course, Ovechkin 19-year-old and Ovechkin 39-year-old differ from each other not in favor of the latter, but this is one and the same Gol person.

At the dawn of his overseas exploits, no one could assume that the young brutal Russian with his branded purebatiness and an indefatigable desire to hit the gate and crash into everything that moves will encroach on almost sacred records. In the ordinary consciousness, the records of the Great (here can be without a name and surname) gradually turned into something unshakable and as far as a star outside our Galaxy. And when the hockey world five years ago realized that there is a person who theoretically could go beyond, then this madness named “What if?” Began. Everyone who, even by tangent, became interested in this story, freely or involuntarily felt like a part of a dream embodied in a real project.

True, Alexander Ovechkin was already far over thirty. True, with all his health and "immutability" he was not iron. True, he was overtaken by recessions. But he is still shooting mainly from his “office”, that is, from the left circle of throwing, he took off the scalpes from the next victims, and the number of injured guards of the gate increased.

This main mystery of Ovechkin - how to make magic from a simple click from the same place - so so far no one has unraveled.

At one time, the metropolitan team after the capture of Stanley's coveted Cup in 2018, it seemed, did not have more than another goal than to cite the pedestal “The Record of all time”. And nothing that the record is personal - the race itself made a process how entertaining, so profitable for both the club and the whole league. The owner of Washington Ted Leonsis as the main processor of the process in public could say anything, but in reality everyone understood what was moving them. You can pack your dream beautifully that the club and partners helped to make the captain and their main star with all their might. But the rivals were not going to lift the carpet of Ovechkin, and the attitude towards the great pursuit in the USA, and even more so in Canada, was not as unanimous as they were trying to imagine, and not this figure to make it an intravital monument. Nevertheless, everyone was waiting for the denouement.

Doubts - remained. Until recently, when in the fall Ovechkin temporarily dropped out of the race due to injury. This was especially insulting at the moment when Washington, as if waking up from hypnosis, suddenly played fresh and fun, and the defendant himself threw out unnecessary thoughts, as a rule, preventing the greatest scorers from taking the last steps. There was a fear that after restoration Ovechkin would no longer return that lightness that so struck everyone at the beginning of the season. But it turned out that he retained it.

The rest was a matter of technology.

Nothing intervened, even a policy that now rules everything. The political views of the new champion are known, he has not demonstrated them since February 2022 that he has been arranging both sides by default.

The fact that in Russia this undoubtedly outstanding achievement is submitted with an excess of the degree is understandable - the country in the global sports space, in fact, is not three years, and Ovechkin’s record is not appreciated. Everything converges on it, and the headlines “America is crazy about Ovechkin” are not something extraordinary. Of course, the record will not change anything fundamentally, no one for Russia does the doors to the big sports world, and even to the hockey world, will open.

For the rest of the world, this event is primarily universal, and this is its main and enduring value. Is this not enough?

To whom it will be difficult to survive what is happening is to Washington, who seemed to go into history. On the nose of the Stanley Cup, and the playoffs requires absolute concentration, which is extremely difficult to achieve in the turmoil around the record holder. As Alexander Mikhailovich himself can cope with this, we will find out soon. He had already experienced his most starry moment, throwing the most important goal in the second period of the match with the Islanders. Of course, he abandoned the office. Well, almost from it.

The new sniper record of the NHL, set by Alexander Ovechkin on April 6, 2025 in New York, is 895 goals in 1487 matches.