Russian Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin continues to unpleasantly surprise skeptics who have written him off. Our hockey player shows incredible performance for a 39-year-old. Another cool match performed by the Russian literally caused panic among the haters of the main sniper of our time.

“We played with all our might”

Alexander the Great is now showing, without exaggeration, an outstanding performance. The captain of the capital’s team prepared as thoroughly as possible for this season, and it yielded results. After the away game with Vegas, Ovechkin led the list of league snipers with 13 goals. And this at 39 years old! Wayne Gretzky could only dream of such performance at this age.

Before the meeting with the Golden Knights, the Russian was 31 goals behind the legendary Canadian in the fight for the record for goals scored in the regular season, but a hat-trick allowed him to reduce the gap to 28 goals. Naturally, statistics lovers found achievements that Alexander updated thanks to such a cool performance. No Russian hockey player has ever scored more than 11 goals in a season at the age of 39 or older. Also, no one has led the NHL sniper race at that age.

Surprisingly, statistics lovers from the TSN publication found an indicator by which Ovechkin beat Gretzky. The hat trick allowed him to rise to second place on the list of hockey players with 3+ goals per game, one of which was scored on the power play. Alexander had 17 such games, and the great Canadian stopped at 16 meetings. The leader in this indicator is Mario Lemieux with 20 matches.

— There was a pretty cool atmosphere, as always. I think we played strong. We won, but we need to move on,” the Russian said after the victory.

Alexander Ovechkin / Photo: © G Fiume / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

“He was just lucky”

Lately, even Gretzky regularly explains to the press that his record for goals in the regular season will definitely be broken by Ovechkin, it’s only a matter of time. But there are still fans who hope that the Russian forward will not succeed. Another stream of negative comments on social networks spilled out after Ovechkin’s hat-trick in Las Vegas.

“I absolutely don’t want Alex Ovechkin to break Wayne Gretzky’s record. No, thank you,” wrote @sugacuubee.

— Ovechkin should be banned from entering the country. Jonah! @Brendan_F_Wendt suggested.

– I’m crying, Ovechkin can break the record this year. What the hell? – asks @SlapshotShibe.

— You watch the news and see Ovechkin with a hat-trick. What this doesn’t say is how lucky he was. One goal was scored after a mistake from a Vegas player, and another into an empty net. Just gifts! – belittles the merits of Alexander @CurtisGRush.

But for every dissatisfied comment, there are several dozen positive ones. Moreover, the Russian forward is praised not only by fans, but also by experts from the world of hockey.

— Is Ovechkin worthy of the Hart Trophy? asks journalist and podcast host Nick Alberga.

— Ovechkin is a machine. The 39-year-old player shares first place in the NHL in terms of goals, said American hockey commentator Liam McHugh.

– Damn it, Ovechkin plays like he urgently needs to pay the rent! Wake up Wayne Gretzky! – exclaims a fan with the nickname @hautePJones.

“Ovechkin is an alien from outer space,” wrote New Jersey fan @MaestroGee75.

“Watching Ovechkin all my life has been a privilege,” @davidpwebber21 admired the performance of the capital’s captain.

Ovechkin is very close to conquering new cool records. For example, he needs to shoot the puck against one more goalie to equal Jaromir Jagr (178) in the number of goalies he has scored against. The Russian can do this in the next match!