A quick word about The Great 8: Alexander Ovechkin

The most electrifying hockey player alive.

Sorry, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid fans. They’re pretty nice toys and all, but there’s ONE man I look forward to seeing play my hometown St. Louis Blues:

THE GREAT 8!

Alexander Ovechkin scored his 789th last night against the Blues, narrowing a 3-0 St. Louis lead at the time. It was as pretty as the other 788 goals, 290 of which have come on the power play in his historic 18-year/1,293 regular season game career. Imagine if Albert Pujols never left town back in 2011, and you have the Ovie effect.

He may not be the sexiest player in the game (he’s more of a betrayed Bond villain than a Henrik playboy), but his game sure is hot. Every time he hits the ice, like a slugger stepping to the plate, fans in the arena and at home watch and wait for greatness. It could be #8 taking the puck through center ice and into the zone before dishing the puck to a teammate or just burying the shot himself.

What sets Ovechkin apart nearly two decades later, including that goal he scored while essentially laying on the ice, is his unique ability to collect a pass and let it rip on net. His hand-eye coordination is off the charts, and his snipe from the dot has fooled every legendary (and not-so-legendary) netminder.

You could have warned Blues backup goalie Thomas Greiss that Ovechkin was on the ice, but it wouldn’t have mattered. If there’s a kryptonite for goaltenders, it’s the winger who can gather the puck and let it rip in what seems like two seconds--and the shot is dead-on in accuracy. Name a handful of players who can do that as consistently as Ovie. Go ahead and think about it for a few seconds, which are a couple longer than it takes for him to score a goal.

In 16 of his 17 seasons, he’s scored at least 30 goals. The 50-goal mark has been notched nine times. Oh, and the only time Ovechkin didn’t reach 30 goals was the pandemic-shortened season. In 45 games, he still managed to score 24 goals. INSANE.

He turned 37 in September, and I believe the man could play on the Capitals as long as Adam Wainwright has pitched. Ovechkin reminds me of Teemu Selanne but more lethal, which is the highest compliment being that the latter tallied 684 goals in 1,451 career regular season games.

Ovechkin’s fire doesn’t extinguish in the postseason either. He’s blasted 72 goals into the net, including 15 during Washington’s Stanley Cup run in the 2017-18 season.

Few players can play at a level that Ovechkin can, and even fewer can keep doing it for 18 seasons. He’s already out to a nine goal head start in just 19 games this year. Wayne Gretzky’s career goals mark of 894 is in serious jeopardy.

Regular season and playoffs combined:

Gretzky: 1,016

Ovechkin: 861

All together, Ovechkin could still catch him. He could catch the greatest hockey player of all time. That’s why he’s the most electrifying player at the moment. Like Pujols this past summer, he’s still got the big producer ability. Most of the big game players drift in the second half of their career, offering a portion of what they used to.

Ovechkin is easily on pace for another 50-goal season. Amazing. Match that, Matthews and McDavid.