Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin scored the 767th goal of his career on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders, eclipsing Jaromir Jagr on the NHL’s all-time goals list to move into sole possession of third place.
The history-making tally came in the third period, when Ovechkin scored off a faceoff to make it 3-2.
A strong performance against the Calgary Flames on March 8 set the stage for Ovechkin to accomplish the feat.
Ovechkin scored twice in that game, the 157th multi-goal performance of his career. His 35th of the season came at 13:23 of the second period and the goal that tied Jagr’s mark came on an empty-netter with 1:48 remaining in the third period.
The 36-year-old has been closing in on this ascent up the all-time list all season. In 56 games played, he has 34 goals.
Ovechkin now trails only Gordie Howe, who scored 801 goals, and Wayne Gretzky’s once-untouchable total of 894 goals.
The historic on-ice feat comes as Ovechkin’s off-ice support for Russian president Vladimir Putin has entered the national spotlight once more, brought into glaring focus by his native country’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Ovechkin, whose Instagram profile picture still features him and Putin, publicly campaigned for Russia’s leader in 2017 with a social media movement named Putin Team. Since the invasion began nearly two weeks ago, Ovechkin has commented on it publicly only once, calling for “no more war” but stopping well short of denouncing Moscow’s actions.
“It’s a hard situation. I have family back in Russia and it is scary moments,” Ovechkin said. “But we can’t do anything. We just hope (it’s) going to be (ending) soon and everything is going to be all right.”
Public criticism of Putin and his administration can be complicated for Russian athletes. Shortly after Artemi Panarin supported Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny in an Instagram post, he took a leave of absence to deal with accusations levied against him by his former coach in a Russian tabloid, which alleged he struck an 18-year-old woman in a Latvian bar almost one decade prior. Panarin denied the claim and the Rangers called it an “intimidation tactic being used against him for being outspoken on recent political events.”
Still, as the crisis in Ukraine grows more dire, many had hoped Ovechkin would use his platform as one of Russia’s most recognizable figures to take a firmer anti-invasion stance.
During the game in Calgary, Ovechkin’s first on the road since his comments, he was greeted by some with a chorus of boos throughout the night.
The resonance of the conflict was unmissable against the Edmonton Oilers last week, too. A Ukrainian version of “O Canada” was played before that game, courtesy of the Viter Choir and Folk Ensemble, a fitting rendition given nearly 160,000 people in Edmonton are of Ukrainian descent.
Ovechkin’s comparative silence was further underscored by the divergent approaches he and the player he passed on the NHL’s all-time scoring list have taken during the crisis.
Jagr, who was born in what was then Czechoslovakia, wore No. 68 throughout his career in sombre remembrance of the year 1968, when Soviet tanks stormed into the country to quell the Prague Spring insurgency that had temporarily brought social reform. Though Jagr wasn’t born until four years later, his grandfather died between the start of the uprising and its brutal, swift conclusion.
Over 50 years later, as a different Russian leader invades a different country, Jagr has sought to be a staunch supporter of Ukraine and its people.
The 50-year-old announced last week that his team, Kladno, would move its final regular-season game to an 18,000-plus-seat arena in Prague from its 5,200-seat home in Chomutov with ticket proceeds benefiting Ukrainian families seeking asylum in the Czech Republic.
The NHL, heeding Jagr’s call for donations, pledged $68,000 to the cause.
