Penton: Overall, Ovechkin’s a sniper, but he's no Gretzky
By Bruce Penton
It was a legitimate question, coming from a person who is not a fan of the National Hockey League, but aware of the hype surrounding Washington Capitals’ sniper Alex Ovechkin’s drive to overtake Wayne Gretzky in the statistical category ‘most goals-career’ in the NHL:
“So is Ovechkin better than Gretzky was?”
Uh, no. Not even close. It’s like asking whether Bruce Springsteen is a better musician than Ludwig van Beethoven or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Springsteen may have made a lot more money than the men who came 200 years before him, but … different eras.
Ovechkin’s goal-scoring feats are actually somewhat more impressive than Gretzky’s because the Russian-born 39-year-old has played most of his career in a defensive era whereas Gretzky played in — and was probably responsible for — a high-octane, let-er-rip offensive era that produced massive offensive totals.
But as an overall player? There is no comparison. Not only did Gretzky score 894 goals during his 21-year NHL career (plus another 46 as a teenager in two World Hockey Association seasons before the Oilers joined the NHL) but he racked up 1,963 assists, a total no one will ever approach. In 1985-86, a season in which Gretzky scored 52 goals (only the eighth-highest single-season output in his career), the Great One picked up 163 assists. In fact, his assist tally alone that season would have won the Art Ross trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer. (Mario Lemieux was second in the points' race that year with 141).
When Gretzky was in his prime, leading the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cups (1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988), the Oilers scored more than 5.5 goals per game. Ovechkin’s Capitals, the highest-scoring team in the NHL this season, are averaging around 3.5 goals per game. Goalies may be better, or teams are playing a more defensive-style game, but whatever the reason, goals are far harder to come by for Ovechkin than they were for Gretzky, who had Hall of Famers Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey, among others, either setting him up or scoring on Gretzky’s brilliant playmaking..
Take away Gretzky's 894 career goals and he still leads the NHL in career points, thanks to his 1,963 assists. Jaromir Jagr is second in total points with 1,921, and Jagr played 250 more games than did Gretzky. Ovechkin is 11th on the all-time points list.
A couple of weeks ago, when Ovechkin scored three goals in a 7-3 win over the Oilers to move to within 12 goals of tying the Gretzky mark, their per-game stats were incredibly close. Ovechkin’s per-game goal total was .60122 while Gretzky's was .60121.
So no, Ovechkin may wind up to be the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leader, but he’s not in the Gretzky realm for overall greatness. The two are stylistically opposites: Gretzky the cerebral, methodical, slow-operating setup man who appeared to read the play two or three seconds before it happened; Ovechkin the wind-up-and-blast sharpshooter who overpowered goalies.
Ovechkin is great, no doubt. But he’s never going to surpass the Great One.
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Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca