Alex Ovechkin scored an empty-netter with less than a second left in Washington’s 6-3 win over Florida Tuesday night, but in the goal tally sheet, they all count as one.
Or, at least that’s what head coach Spencer Carbery told the Junkies, as Ovi’s 63rd empty-netter moved him one goal closer to breaking the all-time goals record held by Wayne Gretzky (who had 56 freebies), because that record Ovi’s chasing is THE one standard of greatness in the game.
“I would say the goal record takes the cake, and here's why: total points is a big one, too, but Wayne is going to be really difficult to get on that one,” Carbery said, “and goals has a little more oomph to it. You can talk about other records, like the iron man streaks of 1,000 straight games without missing a game, goalie wins, games played, but I think the goal record holds more prestige. I’d vote for that as the most prestigious record in hockey.”
As an example of Carbs’ words, Gretzky has 2,857 points because he has more goals than anyone (for now) and 714 more assists than anyone, with Sidney Crosby, the active leader in assists, over 900 behind.
But, there’s two assists potentially to every goal, so double the chances…and besides, you can win a 3-2 game and have less assists than the losing team, and records aren’t always set in the same era.
“There’s some cool records, too, but with some of the rule changes…like, Wayne had 50 goals in 39 games, which is an incredible record that the game changing doesn’t necessarily change, but it makes it almost unattainable to a certain extent,” Carbery said. “He had 215 points in a season because there was so much scoring in that era, so I think it's gonna be really hard to break that. It’s a great record, I just don't think anybody can get to that in this era. So, the goals record, with Ovi doing it through the 90s and 2000s and through a bunch of different eras, that's No. 1 for me.”