Alex Ovechkin on Sunday broke a record once seen as untouchable with his 895th career NHL goal, completing a journey from a childhood marred by tragedy to the greatest heights of his sport.
Russian Ovechkin scored from the left face-off circle in the second period of the Washington Capitals’ 4-1 defeat by the Islanders in front of a sea of his fans who traveled north to witness hockey history at the UBS Arena.
“All of you fans, from all the world, Russian, we did it boys, we did it,” Ovechkin said. “It’s history.”
Photo: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images/USA Today
The son of a two-time women’s Olympic basketball champion and a professional footballer, Ovechkin said his love of hockey was nurtured by his older brother Sergei, who died following a car accident when he was 24 and Alex was 10 years old.
His parents forced him to play in a youth hockey league game the day after Sergei died, Alex Ovechkin said in a 2015 interview with Graham Bensinger.
“I was on the bench, I was crying, but my shift, my coach said: ‘Okay, go play,’” he said. “And I played, and I was crying.”
Six years later, Alex Ovechkin made his professional debut for Dynamo Moscow, and at age 18 he went first overall in the 2004 NHL draft to the Washington Capitals, who were coming off a disastrous 23-46 season.
Only the second Russian to go first in the draft after Ilya Kovalchuk in 2001, Alex Ovechkin quickly became one of Russia’s most recognizable athletes, serving as an ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
He teased his Russian heritage in a 2011 ESPN commercial, where he was seen flipping through a filing cabinet in a darkened room at the broadcaster’s offices.
“What are you, a Russian spy or something?” sportscaster Steve Levy asks with a chuckle in the commercial.
“Yea, right,” Alex Ovechkin responds, before teammate and compatriot Semyon Varlamov throws him a rope from the office ceiling, saying: “That was close.”
His nationality — and longstanding public support for Russian President Vladimir Putin — became a more complicated matter over time for the player who has spent his career with the team a stone’s throw from the White House.
In 2022, insurer MassMutual pulled a television ad that featured Alex Ovechkin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Canadian equipment brand CCM Hockey stopped using Alex Ovechkin and other Russian players altogether for marketing.
However, Washington fans consistently embraced their charismatic captain, who grew up in the outskirts of Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union and signed a five-year, US$47.5 million contract extension in 2021.
“The impact Alex has had on hockey in D.C. extends well beyond Capital One Arena,” team owner Ted Leonsis said. “His performance on the ice has undoubtedly sparked countless new fans of the game and inspired more youth players to lace up skates.”
Alex Ovechkin, who delivered the Capitals their first Stanley Cup in 2018, broke the all-time NHL scoring record of Canadian Wayne Gretzky.
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