EXCLUSIVE: Wayne Gretzky rooting for Alex Ovechkin to break his goals record | NBC Sports Washington

Wayne Gretzky surprises Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin in the NBC Sports Washington booth to talk about Alex Ovechkin's ongoing pursuit of his record for the most goals in NHL history.
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EXCLUSIVE: Wayne Gretzky hopes Alex Ovechkin breaks his goals record | NBC Sports Washington

[@OsmosisMiller]

Wayne is an absolute class act. Hopefully Ovi can break the record sooner than later. Pleasant surprise to see him today.

[@rabbitgundam4420]

What a classy guy.

[@farhodhakimov6428]

What a person!!! Love his attitude! The Great!!!!

[@sergeant_salty]

God bless Wayne. Truly the great one on and off the ice!!!

[@CanadianBongRipper]

Ovi has always lowkey been Gretzky's protege. Crosby had Lemieux and Ovi had Gretzky.

[@HazardaG]

just 2 🐐

[@GreekboyyD]

73 more to go!

[@MrRazorblade999]

46

[@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053]

Look at these chuckle heads looking back the camera to try to wrap up what Gretzky is saying. Don’t cut him short… what he’s saying is more important then the first puck drop of the period. You should be honoured he gave you the time. He’s a class act tho for sure and the greatest to ever play.

[@C.Rig21]

The great one will always be the greatest. Not taking anything away from Ovy I wish him success and its good for hockey that these things happen. That being said, let's keep in mind that Gretzky started his professional career in 1979. This was the era of the 2 line pass, neutral zone trap, goalies being able to handle the puck more freely and you could pretty much hook and grab puck carriers without consequences. There were other aspects that made scoring difficult. He still managed to score at least 40 goals a season with Edmonton. LA was a different story. The point is he was a prolific scorer and player for many years until the nhl changed the game in 2005 to increase goal scoring to attract more people to hockey. In 2005 they did away with the 2 line pass making the neutral zone trap ineffective. Now you could pass from your defensive zone passed the redline increasing the chances of break aways and opening up the game. They also tightened up the physical play calling more penalties for hooking, holding and slashing to the stick. They made the goalies pads smaller, increased the area behind the net to promote puck handling and put the trapezoid behind the net restricting goalies from handling the puck outside that area behind the net. A la Blueline (Rob Stabuer LA Kings). Enter Alexander Ovechkin in 2005 benefiting from the rules changes at the age of 20. Gretzky ended his career in 1999 never being able to benefit from the rule changes. I hope Ovechkin catches Gretzky. Still what 99 did was pretty amazing given the time period.

[@jacoballen4189]

You typed that entire paragraph and didn't even mention that goal scoring per game during Gretzkys era was almost 2 goals more per game than Ovechkins era.

[@whereschavo3953]

theres no comparison, look at the net space in gretzkys era to ovis. ovi is the better goal scorer

[@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053]

@@whereschavo3953wrong. The 80’s had a 2 line offside, they had clutching and grabbing they had equipment that wasn’t even comparable to todays era. The players and coaches got better over that period of time, but if Gretzky had of been in that same era as today he would still dominate. I didn’t even like him when he played.. but that’s just a fact

[@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053]

@@jacoballen4189and they had 2 line offsides and clutching and grabbing and terrible equipment by comparison.. fact is Gretzky is the goat. That’s just what it is

[@whereschavo3953]

@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053 that's nice. Gretzky is the greatest hockey player. But ovi is the greatest goal scorer

[@ryananthony2614]

Ovechkin greatest goals scorer Wayne Gretzky said respects

[@luckyea7]

Which of the modern hockey players can become the best sniper of the NHL regular seasons and beat Gretzky's record? To get into the TOP of the best NHL snipers, you need to score a lot and play a lot of matches. List of top NHL scorers by career-ending goals per game average: 1. Mike Bossy - 0.762 2. Mario Lemieux - 0.754 3. Sea Denneny - 0.751 4. Babe Dye - 0.746 5. Pavel Bure - 0.623 6. Wayne Gretzky - 0.601 7. Brett Hull - 0.584 8. Bobby Hull - 0.574 9. Tim Kerr - 0.565 10. Rick Martin - 0.561 11. Phil Esposito - 0.559 12. Maurice Richard - 0.556 13. Cam Neely - 0.544 14. Marcel Dionne - 0.542 15. Pat Lafontaine - 0.541 16. Michel Goulet - 0.503 17. Rick Wave - 0.503 18. Nels Stewart - 0.498 19. Guy Lafleur - 0.497 20. Mike Gartner - 0.494 21. Dino Sissarelli - 0.494 22. Jari Kurri - 0.480 23. Ilya Kovalchuk - 0.478 24. Alexander Mogilny - 0.478 25. Joe Mullen - 0.473 26. Teemu Selanne - 0.471 Wayne Gretzky played 1487 matches. In terms of the number of games played, Wayne Gretzky ranked 24th, Ovechkin entered the TOP 60, and the number of players who played 1000 or more games is only 378. All players from the above list played fewer games than Gretzky. And the first five hockey players, although they bypassed Gretzky in terms of the average number of goals per game, did not even play 1000 games. Average number of goals per game: 1. Auston Matthews - 0.626 2. Alexander Ovechkin - 0.612 3. Connor McDavid - 0.521 4. Steven Stamkos - 0.521 5. David Pastrnak - 0.496 6. Leon Draisaitl - 0.47 7. Sidney Crosby - 0.468 8. Mikko Rantanen - 0.44 9. Patrick Laine - 0.43 10. Sebastian Aho - 0.42 11. Nathan McKinnon - 0.38 12. Jack Eichel - 0.38 13. Corey Perry - 0.338 14. Mitch Marner - 0.33 15. Andrey Svechnikov - 0.32 16. Jack Hughes - 0.31 17. Matt Barzal - 0.25 Over time, due to age, this indicator only worsens. For example, at the age at which Ovechkin is now McDavid, Matthews and Pastrnak, the average number of goals per game was 0.634. Here all three lost to Ovechkin. The more often a hockey player misses games, the less he will play in his career. Percentage of matches played in recent seasons: 1. Connor McDavid - 97% (seasons 2016/2017-2021/2022) 2. Alexander Ovechkin - 96% (seasons 2014/2015-2021/2022) 3. Auston Matthews - 90% (seasons 2016/2017-2021/2022) 4. David Pastrnak - 87% (seasons 2015/2016-2021/2022) Multiplying the average number of goals per game by the percentage of games played, we get the following indicators: 1. Alexander Ovechkin - 0.59 2. Auston Matthews - 0.561 3. Connor McDavid - 0.508 4. David Pastrnak - 0.429 Ovechkin at the age at which McDavid, Matthews and Pastrnak are now, this figure would be 0.61. Here again, all three lost to Ovechkin. Let's compare Ovechkin and his closest competitor Matthews in the same conditions, namely in those seasons in which they turned 20-24 years old. For Matthews, these are the 2017/2018-2021/2022 seasons. Ovechkin has 2005/2006-2009/2010. In these seasons, Ovechkin scored 269 goals in 396 games, Matthews 219 goals in 325 games. Average number of goals per game: Ovechkin - 0.679, Matthews - 0.674. Percentage of matches played: Ovechkin - 96.59%, Matthews - 87.37%. The product of these indicators: Ovechkin - 0.656, Matthews - 0.589. Of today's hockey players, Ovechkin has the best chance of becoming the NHL's top scorer in the regular season and breaking Gretzky's record. His closest competitor, Matthews, at the same age, has a lower average number of goals per game, and also missed more games.

[@CourtyardPigeon]

Wayne holds just about every other record in the NHL and many of those will never be touched

[@RaineriHakkarainen]

In 1980s NHL 8 goals per game! Today only 6 goals per game! Auston Matthews have scored 54 in 63 games this season! If Matthews had played In 1982 he would had scored over 100 goals easily beating Gretzky's 92 goal record! Ovechkin ERA only 5,3-6 goals per game! If Ovechkin had played high scoring 1980s he would had scored over 1200 goals easily! Canada have 650000 hockey players! USA have 500000 hockey players! Ovechkin's Russia only 80000 hockey players! Canada and USA should have 15 guys who have scored over 800 goals like Ovechkin today!!

[@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053]

@@RaineriHakkarainenwhat’s your point? The systems they have now. the equipment 1000% better, the 2 line offsides they had, the clutching and grabbing and the evolution of the game.. if Gretzky had of started today he’d still dominate. He’s over 1400 points better then the next closest guy with a +520!! I don’t care what era you think was easier… a +520! And over 2800 points… ya it’s cuz it was easy then😂😂

[@zajoking]

❤❤❤❤ Nothing else

[@ryananthony2614]

Oveckkin

[@wassmikesreviewsreactions2053]

He’s probably a top 40 player all time

[@austism1]

wow you never see him at all... he live off the grid or what? lol

[@robford3211]

Gretz is a class act but I couldn’t care about the rogue state of Putistan