Will Ovechkin pass Gretzky’s Goal Total?

[Invictus]

Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in history. Period. There is no debate.

Hell, scoring wasn't even the focal part of his game. He just happened to benefit from playing in an era where goals came easily.

MJ vs Lebron isn't even a debate either

Definitely debatable. You even said it yourself. Ovechkin's sole focus point is goals... he loves them! Imagine if Gretzky's full focal point was goals. He'd have twice as many! Ovechkin needs support for his goals a lot more than Gretzky who made his goals happen. Gretzky played a lot more defensive role too. Ovechkin will never come close to Gretzky's shorthanded goals.

These two on the same team would be insane :P
It's interesting the Crosby vs Ovechkin matchup... Ovechkin is making a whole lot more noise now.

MJ >>>>>> Lebron.

[notch4077]

Can a mod please change the title of this thread to

“Will Ovechkin pass Gretzky’s Goal Total This Year?”

Thank you.

[Canucks_fan18]

Definitely debatable. You even said it yourself. Ovechkin's sole focus point is goals... he loves them! Imagine if Gretzky's full focal point was goals. He'd have twice as many! Ovechkin needs support for his goals a lot more than Gretzky who made his goals happen. Gretzky played a lot more defensive role too. Ovechkin will never come close to Gretzky's shorthanded goals.

These two on the same team would be insane :P
It's interesting the Crosby vs Ovechkin matchup... Ovechkin is making a whole lot more noise now.

MJ >>>>>> Lebron.

I don't agree with all of this. Goals came easier is a fact in Gretzky's era. What your describing is what if's. I am sure Gretzky's concentrated quite a bit on scoring goals as well, even though he was considered the greatest distributor of the puck of all time. Just like I am sure Ovi, see Wilson's goal the other night, concentrates more on distributing the puck than we give him credit for as well.

Here's the point. Gretzky's the greatest goal scorer of all time until he's not. If Ovi get's past his totals than he is, period. If he also has that record, I am putting him on the hockey Mount Rushmore. Top 5 all time. He also past's Sid in that case, in their generational debate regardless of cups. Everyone talks about the cups but Sid had Malkin too. Which Malkin is the third best player of that generation. Backstrom is great but he's at least two deviation points lower. Cups are based on teams made of individuals.

PS.

Defiantly MJ over Lebron.

[Invictus]

Gretzky also played in the dead puck era.
Ovi gets an over abundance of goals on the PP which is easier to score than 5v5 (already more PP goals then Gretzky).
No where near Gretzky's SH goals.

Regardless if Ovi breaks Gretzky's goal total or not, Gretzky still the better goal scorer (for a lot of us). They just don't play the game the same way.
Definitely a better goal scorer to Crosby. The comparison between them was more broad than just goal scoring.

Ovi is not a top 5 player all time.
Top 5 goal scorer though? Possibly yes.
I rather make a top 6-7 and not really rank them inside of it.

[Canucks_fan18]

Gretzky also played in the dead puck era.
Ovi gets an over abundance of goals on the PP which is easier to score than 5v5 (already more PP goals then Gretzky).
No where near Gretzky's SH goals.

Regardless if Ovi breaks Gretzky's goal total or not, Gretzky still the better goal scorer (for a lot of us). They just don't play the game the same way.
Definitely a better goal scorer to Crosby. The comparison between them was more broad than just goal scoring.

Ovi is not a top 5 player all time.
Top 5 goal scorer though? Possibly yes.
I rather make a top 6-7 and not really rank them inside of it.

Not top 5 eh? How do you win hockey games? I googled this to find out...

"To win a game one team must score more goals than their opponents. If the game is a tie then the game goes into overtime and an additional quarter is played out until one of the teams score. The first team to score will be the winners."

Ahh it's scoring goals. So if Ovi, ends up with the most goals in history which is how you win a hockey game than he's got to be there. People can say so and so is better all around. Well hockey isn't played one on one, it's played as a team. The argument that Ovi doesn't make his teammates better is also a misconception. The fact that you have such a prolific goal scorer on the ice makes the opponents have to pay extra attention to him, in turn allowing more ice for his teammates.

Anyway, we clearly don't see eye to eye on this. Let's see how this season, and the rest of his career plays out. At this point I would say he's 95% assured of at least reaching second all time in goals. He also has a really good chance to be the third oldest player in history to score over a 100 points in a season this year, and the first since Sakic in 2006-07.

[Invictus]

"To win a game one team must score more goals than their opponents. "

This is the point you missed. Pretty substantial difference between Gretzky and Ovi in this regard. What do you think are at the end of all Gretzky's assists? Goals. I do think there is some goal scoring ability in some assists as well.
Capitals are setup really well to compliment Ovi.

Ovi comes no where near a top 5 greatest player all time.

At this point I would say he's 95% assured of at least reaching second all time in goals. He also has a really good chance to be the third oldest player in history to score over a 100 points in a season this year, and the first since Sakic in 2006-07.

I'd say it's even closer to a 99% () chance he reaches 2nd all time in goals. I do think he surpasses Gretzky - I'm just curious if it's going to be in more or less GP.

[hockeyrobot]

Great hat trick... But those jerseys suck.

[Invictus]

Great hat trick... But those jerseys suck.

Agree. Did you see the video of Ovi jr throwing a hat on the ice?

[stevegamer]

Ovechkin just took over the scoring lead. This is crazy.

[saucelife90]

Just tied Andreychuk for most PP goals in a career.

[2014olympicgold]

The last time Ovi finished with more assists than goals was 2016-17 season (33g/36a), and then before that was 2010-11 lol. Guy hasn't even clicked on the PP yet

[Blues_fan1000]

Anyone see this article from yesterday? Claims ove has a massive edge in ot goals over Gretzky which would be the reason he breaks the record

22 goals, that’s the “massive” number, less than 3% of his total goals. What a dumb statement…

https://twitter.com/thescorenhl/stat...505852929?s=21

[saucelife90]

Anyone see this article from yesterday? Claims ove has a massive edge in ot goals over Gretzky which would be the reason he breaks the record

22 goals, that’s the “massive” number, less than 3% of his total goals. What a dumb statement…

https://twitter.com/thescorenhl/stat...505852929?s=21

Wonder what the next excuse will be to try and diminish Ovi's success. Maybe 99 should have tried ending games like Ovi does

[stevegamer]

It's a nice edge, but it's dwarfed by Ovechkin's time missed due to work stoppages & Covid.

[doulos]

It's impossible and stupid to try and compare Ovechkin and Gretzky.

It's better to just enjoy watching history.