Alex Ovechkin has transcended hockey since he entered the league formally in 2005. He needed to wait an additional yr due to that pesky canceled season after he was drafted the yr prior. He additionally missed three months resulting from one other lockout in 2012. To not point out the coronavirus pandemic disrupting the 2020 season. With out these three lapses in time spent off the ice as a substitute of scoring, there may not be a aim chase proper now. Wayne Gretzky could be No. 2 on the NHL’s all-time targets scored record if Ovechkin had the near-two seasons of video games misplaced in that trio of sabbaticals.

As information disseminated concerning the Washington Capitals’ captain taking a go away of absence from the workforce to are inclined to the well being of a member of the family, torpedoing the workforce’s probabilities of retaining the ultimate Japanese Convention playoff spot because the stretch run of the hockey season commences, the response was fairly elegant. Nobody complained that Ovie was abandoning his workforce or the chase of one of many sports activities’ best data. Ovechkin will keep 82 targets shy of Gretzky for the foreseeable future, as Washington head coach Peter Laviolette mentioned there’s no timetable for The Nice Eight’s return.

Ovechkin prioritizing his household is nothing new. Final yr, as Russia’s brutal, useless warfare in opposition to Ukraine broke out, he was tasked with toeing the road of holding his household protected, whereas not exhibiting an outright denial of Vladimir Putin and disavowing the warfare. That skinny line was a gerrymandered place to be because the highest-profile Russian athlete in America, and presumably of any sport. But, he’s stayed well-liked regardless of few outdoors Russia supporting the invasion. He’ll be 38 this September and even with the information that he received’t swimsuit up for the Capitals anytime quickly, any doubt creeping in that he’ll ultimately be the sport’s best aim scorer shouldn’t.

‘When,’ not ‘if’

The discuss of if Gretzky’s report might be damaged had shifted in tone this season to when will probably be shattered. Even when Ovechkin scores 30 targets every of the subsequent three seasons, he will get it. And that’s a reasonable aim whole for him, even when he’ll enter his fifth decade on Earth in the course of the chase. In 54 video games performed this season, he’s already netted 32. Breaking 50 wasn’t out of the query earlier than this sabbatical. A wholesome Ovechkin nonetheless has top-of-the-line slap pictures within the recreation. What number of goaltenders have tried and did not cease that one-timer from simply above the left faceoff circle?

Washington being Ovechkin-less does torpedo the workforce’s playoff possibilities, however received’t utterly remove them. The Capitals have had a number of integral gamers damage directly for many of this season. Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson had been out for a majority of this season, T.J. Oshie lately returned from injured reserve, and John Carlson is out indefinitely after taking a slap shot to the face. Ovechkin is by far the largest lack of the bunch. His presence alone accounts for a lot of an opposing workforce’s recreation plan. Now, that’s one large fear the remainder of the league doesn’t have.

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Wishing Ovechkin well with whatever health situation is serious enough to where he’d leave hockey behind for a while is a given. With how much he’s shown to love the game, and how much Washington’s fans adore him, says all you need to know about the severity of this circumstance. And good on Ovechkin for not relying on others to handle whatever is going on just because he’s this large, all-important athlete. And every time he returns, he is aware of he’ll be welcomed again into the Capitals’ group simply as he left it, because the group’s GOAT.