Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is constantly stamping his name all over the National Hockey League record books.
In almost every game he plays at this point of his career another of hockey’s legendary marks seems to fall. Ovi achieved what is his greatest individual accomplishment yet on Friday when he potted career goals number 801 and 802 to fully leap ahead of Gordie Howe for the second most goals scored by a player in NHL history.
Watching him take down Mr. Hockey from afar were his parents Tatyana and Mikhail. Tatyana, the two-time Olympic basketball champion talked to the Russian outlet Championship about the enormous milestone.
“Good match, Washington won, well done,” Ovechkina told Pavel Panyshev via Google Translation. “Of course, Sasha’s dad and I watched the game. We are very pleased, the festive ceremony also turned out to be very beautiful. Sasha – well done, that he has surpassed another achievement.”
For Ovechkin’s parents back in Moscow to have caught their son’s game, means they stayed up to watch the matchup beginning at 3 am their time. And, Ovi didn’t score the empty netter to fully leap over Howe until the very final minute of the action.
That sort of commitment is something Ovechkina commented on earlier this season when her son again passed Gordie Howe for the second-most, game-winning goals in NHL history.
“Let Sasha play, score, let him break all records,” Ovechkina said then. “We never sleep at night when the next Washington match is taking place. We watched this game against New Jersey. We saw how Sasha overtook Gordie Howe in winning goals.”
Ovechkin has listened to his mother as he has only gone on to break more records since that late October matchup. Only the great Wayne Gretzky now stands in his way of becoming the league’s greatest goal scorer. As he gets closer to The Great One’s 894 career mark, the atmosphere inside Capital One Arena will only get crazier and it was already pretty crazy as The Great Eight passed Howe.
That’s something that Ovechkina noticed and praised the Washington, DC faithful for.
“We are glad that the fans treat him so well, including ours, who always support him and cheer for him,” Ovechkina said. “I wish you to continue to cheer and applaud in the same spirit!”
After the Capitals’ victory featuring his two huge goals, Ovechkin joked with the media about what he was going to do to celebrate.
“Going to the bar right now,” Ovechkin said. “Hot dog. Nachos. Why not?”
In actuality, what was one of the first things that he actually did? Call his parents.
“After the game, as usual, we phoned our son, congratulated each other, this is a tradition for us,” Ovechkina finished. “We always communicate.”
