Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring his 895th career goal during the second period against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on April 6 in Elmont, New York.Sarah Stier/Getty Images
In the end, the NHL got the classic Alex Ovechkin moment it was hoping for. A snap shot from the top of the circle that was in the net before Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin could be sure it had left the stick.
After notching goal No. 895 on Sunday afternoon, Ovechkin turned and launched himself spread-eagle on his belly down the ice. Put it in the replay vault beside Bobby Orr in mid-air, Wayne Gretzky hopping foot to foot and Sidney Crosby in his postgold crouch. That’s what this chase has been about – a single, indelible image.
Ovechkin always had two superpowers – his shot and his ease. No player in history ever seemed more comfortable in his own skin.
After he broke Gretzky’s all-time goals mark in the second period, they stopped the game and did a ceremony that included everything short of a parade.
When Ovechkin got the mic, he began circling centre ice like an MC. For the first time that you could remember, he seemed a little nervous.
Alex Ovechkin celebrates with teammates after scoring his 895th career goa. Ovechkin's goal passes Wayne Gretzky's 894 goals to become the NHL all-time goal-scoring leader.Sarah Stier/Getty Images
“Thank you, Ilya Sorokin, for letting me score 895,” Ovechkin said. Sadly, there was no reaction shot from Sorokin, who’ll never live this one down back in Mezhdurechensk.
Ovechkin went on, but kept coming back to Gretzky. Even bested, the Oiler great has more gravity than any of hockey’s other celestial bodies.
These endless proceedings had all the things hockey people love – moms, wives, kids, guys with black eyes getting emotional. Because it is so violent, no sport is keener to seem gentle once the play is whistled dead. Tears are as vital to hockey as blood. The TNT broadcast laid it on with a trowel.
Ovechkin was the only one who seemed to have skipped the production meeting. Maybe he’s too Russian to emote. So that was left to Gretzky.
If you’ve watched the past couple of Capitals games, it may have occurred to you that the star of the show wasn’t the guy scoring the goals. It was his 64-year-old wingman.
Gretzky was there in the postgame, answering questions like he’s still playing. And in the pregame. And in between periods.
He had dad stories, dad jokes and dad memories. He seemed to have memorized multiple speeches. He made sure Janet bought something nice for Ovechkin’s wife, Nastya, because Colleen Howe once got his family something. Wars have been less meticulously planned.
Alex Ovechkin's wife Anastasia Shubskaya is presented with an 8 diamond ring from Janet Jones, wife of Wayne Gretzky.Geoff Burke/Reuters
It’s not hard to figure out the why. It was Ovechkin’s show, but it was Gretzky’s redemption tour. Having been hammered back home during the 4 Nations tournament, Gretzky needed to reassert his place as guardian of the game’s institutional memory.
It started well. When he came out with Gary Bettman after Ovechkin’s goal, the NHL commissioner was booed, but he was cheered. He softened the Islander crowd up with a Nassau Coliseum joke and a reference to “Mr. Arbour.”
Gretzky’s speech honouring Ovechkin was more of a statement of principle. Once again, he invoked hockey’s most revered saint – his dad, Walter.
“There’s nothing better than the National Hockey League,” Gretzky said. “It’s the greatest game in the world.”
This was the Gretzky people remember, or want to. The sentimentalist; the small-town guy who never changed. When he hugged Ovechkin, you remarked on how slight he seemed. Whatever swagger Gretzky once had (he was always careful never to show too much of it) is gone.
It’s not the done thing in America, but this is exactly how you ingratiate yourself with Canadians. You get small, stay humble and say “gosh” a lot.
Since no American who isn’t a season-ticket holder was watching hockey on a Sunday afternoon, one assumes Canada was the intended audience.
It was a good show in that regard. Convincing. It would have been even better if the politics of the moment were not on display, even here.
For the past two games, Gretzky was pictured sitting with Donald Trump hatchet man and FBI director Kash Patel. Why is the head of the FBI travelling for hockey games? Shouldn’t he be figuring out who to black bag next? Bettman sat on his other side.
So you have the representative of a New York-based, Hollywood-adjacent billion-dollar entertainment concern and the insideriest of D.C. insiders, connected by a man whom the current U.S. President calls “the greatest Canadian of them all.”
It’s a decent premise for a paranoid thriller, though it probably wouldn’t be paranoid enough.
Last week in Toronto, Bettman nodded at the problems the NHL faces in the tariff-driven Great Depression to come.
“I hope that what we’re seeing is a moment in time and that we can get back to a normal reality,” Bettman said. “I have concerns from a business standpoint.”
In other words, if the U.S. shafts Canada, the NHL is pooched.
Who better to mediate this relationship than Gretzky? And how better to do it than in the midst of something Americans love – a big, flashy show?
So while Ovechkin provided the entertainment, Gretzky was the host. He had more than one constituency to reach, and did his best to satisfy them all.
He was back in the booth in the third period, taking something more than a paternal interest.
“I was really happy for him,” Gretzky said. “I felt like I scored the goal. Does that make sense?”
No, but everyone laughed.
He talked about his parents again, and the Howes, and how everything comes full circle.
“There’s nothing wrong with our game,” Gretzky said, apropos of nothing. “Our game is in a great position. … It’s amazing. Good for us.”