From the outside, Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL goals record with relative ease during the 2024-25 season, scoring 44 goals in 65 games and posting his fifth-best goals-per-game mark of his career (0.68). But behind the scenes, Ovechkin admitted that he felt the enormity of what he was trying to accomplish, especially when he experienced one of the most difficult moments of his career.
Months into the 2024-25 campaign, Ovechkin, then 39, scored an NHL-leading 15 goals in his first 18 games and was arguably playing his best hockey in years. His torrid start, however, came to an abrupt halt on November 18, 2024, when a leg-on-leg collision with Utah Hockey Club forward Jack McBain fractured his left fibula.
The broken leg came after Ovechkin scored twice in the game and had registered a hat trick the day before against the Vegas Golden Knights. The injury was his worst known to date. Ovechkin exited his goals chase at 868, leaving him 27 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record and reintroducing doubt that he’d be able to accomplish the feat.
“Yeah, it was a hard position for me and hard position for fans and for my family because I was on the pace to score maybe 50 goals,” Ovechkin said recently on the Empty Netters podcast. (He was actually on pace to score 68 at that point, a new single-season career high.) “And back then, I was 100 percent concentrating coming back as fast as I can.”
Ovechkin’s healing process was different from that of most normal humans. Former Capitals teammate TJ Oshie said Ovi was walking again the next day.
“I saw him the next morning,” Oshie said. “I walked in, and I’m sitting there doing my crossword. I don’t have anything to do…I look over, and he’s walking in. And he broke his leg like the day before. I’m like, ‘O, what are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I’m fine, babe. Fine.’ He had crutches, but he set them down and then walked around the table to get up.”
Three days later, Ovechkin made his first public appearance since his injury, attending a Washington Wizards game and doing so without crutches or wearing any type of cast.
“He recovered very quickly,” Ovechkin’s wife, Nastya, said to Sport-Express’ Igor Rabiner last March, as translated by Google Translate. “I was once again amazed by my husband’s willpower, and how he was already riding a bike a week after breaking his leg. And he didn’t have to use the crutches they gave him for a single day.
“They didn’t put him in a cast, but they gave him crutches,” she continued. “The doctors didn’t forbid him from walking without them, but it was necessary, if only to avoid pain. I saw a picture of that fracture. And that’s why it was all the more astonishing to me when he put weight on his injured leg. I still have that image in my head. You look at it and think, ‘How is that even possible?!’ But he simply wanted to overcome the pain and thus recover as quickly as possible.
“He limped, of course. And he was in pain. He just didn’t want to use crutches.”
Doctors gave Ovechkin a recovery timeline of four to six weeks. Ovechkin returned to the ice just 14 days after the leg fracture and was back in full equipment and a no-contact jersey two days after that. The Capitals even tried to make his rehab process special, setting up an individual practice session with former Capitals teammate and longtime centerman Nicklas Backstrom at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“Yes, it was so sweet when Backstrom came to the rink and trained with him individually,” Nastya said. “They’ve maintained a bond and support for each other over the years. I think that means a lot to Alexander and lifted his spirits.”
Ovechkin ultimately missed 16 consecutive games during his five-week and five-day recovery, returning to the lineup on December 28 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of course, Ovechkin scored in the game — the 869th goal of his career — but he admitted that suiting up that night was difficult.
“My trainers did great job to recover me, do massages, do all exercises,” Ovechkin said on the Empty Netters podcast “And, of course, when you’re coming back after like month without playing, it’s hard. You’re out of shape. You’re in shape, but you’re out of shape. And the first game was the hardest game I played since, like, maybe Olympic breaks or whatever. Because basically you’re skating, but you’re not pushing your leg 100 percent. You kind of like try to protect your leg from, you know, when you turn left or right. You kind of like, you still have that fear (of re-injuring yourself).”
“Of course, it was difficult for Sasha,” Nastya added. “Not just physically, but also emotionally — he was worried about getting back into shape and regaining it after his injury. This wasn’t preseason, it was the height of the season, and when you’re out for a long time and can’t train, it’s very difficult to catch up.”
After returning from his broken leg, Ovechkin picked up almost exactly where he left off, scoring 29 goals in his final 47 games of the season — a 0.62 goals-per-game pace after the injury, compared to the absurd 0.83 goals per game clip he was on previously. As he crept closer and closer to Gretzky’s high-water mark of 894, Nastya seemed to admit that they avoided talking about the topic altogether.
“I think he’s feeling the pressure — he’s just trying not to show it,” Nastya said. “As for me and everyone around him, naturally, we all want it to happen as soon as possible… For my part, I’m trying not to rush him or put pressure on him.”
When asked if she talked to Ovechkin about the stress he was feeling, Nastya replied, “Well, what’s there to discuss? He’s doing what he’s supposed to do, what he always does. He’s scoring — and, God willing, he’ll keep going.”
Perhaps due to superstition, Ovechkin also tried to avoid the subject as much as possible with the media, despite their valiant attempts to pry into his innermost feelings.
“We’ll take it and move on,” was a common refrain after every new goal he scored — a line that may return as he tries to become the first player in NHL history to score 1,000 times in the regular season.
“As for interviews, most of the questions after a game are the same, so that’s why he answers like that,” Nastya said to Sport-Express in March 2024, per Google Translate. “Besides, he’s given so many interviews in his life that he doesn’t know what new to say anymore.”
Ovechkin would go on to break the NHL goals record and score his 895th career goal on April 6, 2025, against the New York Islanders, sending a wrist shot on a power play past goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
“That day when I broke the record, it was a relief from my shoulder,” Ovechkin said. “Because every day, every time when I go to the restaurant or I talk to someone, everybody, ‘Are you going to break the record this year? Are you going to break the record this year? And my teammates as well, like everybody, ‘You think he’s going to break the record? You think he’s going to break it?’ It’s kind of like something fell off of my shoulder. And I feel, we all feel great.”
The goal also marked Ovechkin’s first scored against Sorokin — the 183rd different goaltender he had beaten in his career up to that point. (He’s now scored on an NHL record 189 different netminders — see the full list.)
“Yeah,” Ovechkin. “It was kind of like a great moment, and it’s going to be in history forever, you know? Russian score against Russian and break the record. So it was pretty cool.”
Ovechkin also reiterated to the Empty Netters podcast that his iconic bellyflop celebration was not planned.
“No, no, no,” Ovechkin said. “I fell, I fell, and when I slide, John Carlson, like, sprinting to me, and he’s like, ‘Get up, get up, get up,’ because everybody (everybody was coming off the bench). Yeah, so he picked me up, and it was a crazy moment.”
The NHL stopped the game in the second period and held a long on-ice ceremony to celebrate Ovechkin’s accomplishment, bringing out Gretzky, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and Ovechkin’s family to congratulate him and present him gifts.
The Capitals also celebrated in the locker room after the game, giving Ovechkin a beer bath and taking individual photos with the milestone goal puck and the new record holder.
One of the players to make their way into the locker room was Backstrom, who, despite being on long-term injured reserve, traveled with the team as Ovechkin chased the record.
“Yeah, we had a little bit of celebration, obviously, in the locker room,” Ovechkin said. “Then we fly back to DC. Then we go to the restaurant with all teammates, wives. Yeah, and it was a great moment.”
The Capitals held a team party back home at Balos Estiatorio, with friends and family. The night featured drinks, a special menu, and a custom 895 cake.
“But after that, like, we start focusing on the games,” Ovechkin said. “And how I said, like, we forget about the record. And we never heard about, like, ‘You think you’re going to score the record? When you’re going to break the record? When you’re going to….’ — it was over.”
