Washington, DC — Alex Ovechkin scored his 888th career goal Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers, pulling just 7 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record. For both the players on the ice and fans watching from the stands, each Ovechkin goal has become something of a milestone in its own right, with the pomp and circumstance only growing every time he scores.
Goaltender Charlie Lindgren spoke on the shift he’s seen as Ovechkin nears the record, noting the energy it brings to the team as the hockey world’s attention zeroes in on Washington.
“A big goal at a big time gets us going there,” he said. “Crowd gets into it. Even the media scrum here — we’ve got more people now and more people come to our games and bigger spotlight. So credit to Ovi, another big goal and another goal off the mark.”
The celebrations when Ovechkin scored Thursday night rivaled plenty of overtime-winners—fans began to cheer as soon as he touched the puck, Slapshot updated a live goal counter as confetti rained down, and chants of ‘Ovi’ echoed throughout the stadium when the goal was announced.
Head coach Spencer Carbery pointed to the chase and its impact as a positive factor in the Capitals’ overall play, enabling them to channel their excitement onto the ice — though he noted that too much focus on the pursuit could backfire.
“Oh, I think there’s tons of positives to it,” he said. “Our guys feed off it on the bench. They’re pulling for him. I think it energizes them to play at a higher level, to be honest with you, (to) raise their game when they’re playing with him, to try to have productive shifts.
“Now, we’ve talked about it as a group. You just have to be careful with forcing pucks to him and overpassing in situations. Just play your game. If you play within our structure, good things will happen for him. So, worry about playing inside of our system and he’ll get his looks. But there’s no question as a coach, I feel like this chase and the energy around it, it hasn’t been a distraction or a hindrance to our group. It’s been a massive benefit.”
The Capitals may be feeding off the energy of his chase, but Ovechkin himself has continued to maintain a business-as-usual approach even this close to history.
“How I said, game by game and we’ll see what happens,” he said of the chase.
Though Ovechkin’s reaction lacks much exuberance, Lindgren saw it as a benefit, highlighting his humility under the spotlight.
“The best part about it is you wouldn’t even really know,” he said. “Just seeing O every day and his mannerisms, the way he comes to the rink, the way he interacts, you’d have no idea that he’s chasing down the greatest goal-scoring record in NHL history. So it’s pretty cool. I’ve been saying it since I’ve been here: he’s a fantastic leader, just a phenomenal guy in the room, and obviously one hell of a goal scorer.”
Whether because of Ovechkin’s levelheadedness or the sheer talent he’s shown over 20 years in the NHL, Ovechkin’s teammates aren’t feeling the jitters one might expect in such a big moment, and they don’t sense it from their captain.
“No, I don’t think so,” Andrew Mangiapane said when asked about potential nerves. “I think everyone knows that he can do it, and there’s no kind of extra pressure or anything for him. He’s a great hockey player, and he always finds the right areas to get his shot off. I think he’s just focusing on it game by game and so are all the players. We’re just going out and playing and just playing all together, and whatever kind of happens, happens is I think the mentality of this room.”
The goal chase may go down to the wire as the Capitals near Game 82 — Ovechkin’s 0.66 goals per game average this season puts him on pace to break the record in the third-to-last game of the regular season, an April 13 home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Nerves or no nerves, the Capitals bench will be cheering Ovechkin on all the way to the finish line.
“I mean, I speak for probably the whole team, we’d love to see him get it done,” Lindgren said. “He’s generating a ton of scoring chances every single game. He could have had a couple tonight.
“So yeah, obviously I don’t know exactly know what he’s feeling. I don’t know how much pressure he’s feeling. But boy, I’ll tell you, just seeing him and being with him every day, [when you] look at him, you wouldn’t know that he’s feeling any sort of pressure at all. He’s still going out and producing, scoring goals for us, and being one heck of a captain.”
