Sunday evening Swedish time, afternoon local time in New York, Ovetjkin surpassed Wayne Gretzky and became the one who has scored the most goals in the NHL's 107-year history, 895.
The power-play goal away against NY Islanders (1–4) was the culmination of a several-week-long hype in and around the North American ice hockey league. Washington back Rasmus Sandin admits that the Russian's record hunt has affected the playoff-ready team's play.
We've talked about it ourselves. It's pretty clear that when we're on the ice with him, it's pretty obvious and pretty easy to turn your head once and look where he is. Instead of maybe taking a shot that you should have taken, you try to find him instead, says the 25-year-old.
Honored in front of the home crowd
Before tonight's home game against Carolina, the first since the goal record, Ovetjkin has said that he wants the team's focus to shift. Even though the team captain himself will be honored with a ceremony before the puck drop at 01:30 Swedish time.
Now that he's taken the record, I think it can be put aside a bit. That we focus on the last matches before the playoffs and get ready for it. That's what he's said to us too. He appreciates that we look after him an extra time and want to help him to the record, but that we now look forward to the fun that's coming soon, says Rasmus Sandin.
At a digital press conference on Wednesday, the Swede was hoarse. The reason was a big celebration in Washington on Sunday after the team came home from New York.
Controversial Putin relation
That it's affected my voice explains itself a bit with the record that was taken. We had a fun evening. There was loud music so you stood and screamed a bit too much when you wanted to talk. It was a fantastic evening.
The past few days, congratulations to Ovetjkin have poured in. Including from Vladimir Putin, with whom the superstar has a controversial personal relationship. Ovetjkin was among others who created Team Putin, a propaganda team for Russia's president ahead of the 2017 election.
He (Ovetjkin) has fueled all this that led to the tragedy in Ukraine today, has ice hockey expert Szymon Szemberg previously said to TT.
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Alexander Ovetjkin, Russia, 895 goals (1,487 regular season matches).
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Wayne Gretzky, Canada, 894 (1,487).
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Gordie Howe, Canada, 801 (1,767).
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Jaromir Jagr, Czech Republic, 766 (1,733).
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Brett Hull, USA, 741 (1,269).
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Mats Sundin, Sweden, 564 (1,346).
The statistics apply to matches up to and including April 9, 2025.
Source: quanthockey.com.
