Alex Ovechkin has long been the NHL's greatest goal-scorer — now he has the proof

Watching Wayne Gretzky highlights can be like peering into another universe, one that closely mirrors our own but in which everything is just a little bit off.

Yes, its hockey.

All the hallmarks are there the ice is the same, the dimensions of the rink are the same, even most of the jerseys are the same.

But everythings a tick slower, enough so that some shifts casually bleed into two minutes, three minutes or more.

Theres time and space enough for old-school slap shots, even in transition.

The game is somehow both more physical violent, even but less defensive.

Advertisement Then there are the goalies.

Theyre 5-foot-something.

Theyre standing upright, kicking and flailing at the puck, the butterfly still viewed by most with skepticism, and reverse VH an unknown concept from the distant future.

Their pads look deflated compared to the life rafts strapped to goalies today, the ones that make stringy 6-foot-4 bean poles look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

And theyre constantly giving up goals that simply would never go in these days.

Simply put, it was undeniably easier to score in the 1980s than it is in the modern era.

Its incontrovertible fact.

In Gretzkys first 12 seasons (1979-80 through 1990-91), during which Gretzky scored an almost unfathomable 718 goals 12 40-goal seasons, nine 50-goal seasons, five 60-goal seasons, two 70-goal seasons, two 80-goal seasons, and one truly absurd, record-setting 92-goal season the leaguewide save percentage was .878.

Teams scored an average of 3.78 goals per game.

By comparison, this season, teams average approximately 2.8 goals per game.

None of this is to discredit The Great One.

At the height of Gretzkys career, he posted the only four 200-point seasons in NHL history.

During his record-setting 215-point campaign in 1985-86, he had 163 assists alone.

Only 11 times in the history of the league has anyone posted even 163 points in a season, and Gretzky owns nine of those (Mario Lemieux has the other two).

In the middle of Alex Ovechkins career, in 2014-15, Dallas Jamie Benn led the entire league with 87 points.

Gretzky is the undisputed (well, outside of Pittsburgh and Boston, at least) greatest hockey player of all time.

Perhaps no individual athlete since Babe Ruth so dominated a North American team sport the way Gretzky did, and its likely none ever will again.

But he hasnt been the games greatest goal-scorer for some time now.

Gretzky has held the record, but Ovechkin has held the mantle.

Advertisement Now Ovechkin has both.

The ageless Washington Capitals wingers relentless two-decade assault on Gretzky and goalies around the league culminated on Sunday on Long Island with his 895th career goal, a mark never before reached, and a mark considered by most unreachable for a quarter century, since Gretzkys storied career ended in 1999 as a New York Ranger.

Gretzky was 38 years old that final season.

He scored nine times in 70 games.

Ovechkin is 39 years old.

He has scored 42 times in 61 games.

He is singular in the games history, one of one.

Gretzky had the highest peaks.

Lemieux might have had the most talent.

The New York Islanders Mike Bossy was the most efficient.

But Ovechkin is the most prolific, the most consistent, the most enduring combining those legends finishing ability with a durability none could match, and doing it in a vastly more difficult era in which to score.

Its so hard, Gretzky said on Friday, moments before Ovechkin tied him with No.

894.

I dont care what era you play in: 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.

Its hard to score goals.

Good for him.

Players are better today.

The equipments better.

The coachings better.

But thats the progression in our game, right? And thats a positive.

Its often folly to try to compare legends across eras Ruth vs.

Willie Mays vs.

Shohei Ohtani; or Otto Graham vs.

Joe Montana vs.

Tom Brady; or Wilt Chamberlain vs.

Michael Jordan vs.

LeBron James.

Ruth never faced an integrated team, Graham and Montana never played in the wide-open passing games of the modern NFL, Chamberlain played in an era without the 3-point shot.

Theres no way to cleanly line up their accomplishments.

But were not here to compare Gretzky to Ovechkin as hockey players.

Thats not even a debate.

Not a soul in the hockey world even considers Ovechkin the best player of his era, a title that goes to his longtime rival, Sidney Crosby.

But in terms of sheer goal-scoring, Ovechkin stands alone.

Nobodys found the back of the net more, and its only gotten harder to score over time.

Advertisement So putting Ovechkin in his place in history isnt difficult.

He scored goals, and he did it better than anyone else.

Ever.

Yes, in his heyday, he was a human wrecking ball, third all-time in hits (a stat thats only been tracked since 2007-08).

Yes, he led the Capitals to the Stanley Cup in 2018.

But Ovechkin scored goals.

Its who he was, its what he did, its what hell be remembered for, long after he scores for the last time.

Well remember that one-time slap shot from the left circle his office the one that everyone knew was coming for 20 years, but nobody could ever do anything about.

Well remember the goal he scored flat on his back, stick over his head in 2006.

Well remember the jubilant, glass-crashing celebrations the sensation of scoring never seeming to get old with the man whos done it the most.

He has the most power-play goals (325), the most empty-net goals (65; Gretzky is second at 56), the most overtime goals (27) and the most game-winning goals (136).

And he reacted to nearly every one of them like it was his first.

Hes not done yet, either.

When he started last season with just five goals in his first 29 games, the hockey world was wondering aloud if he was cooked, washed up, done.

Maybe Gretzkys record was unbreakable, after all.

Then all Ovechkin did was score 26 goals in the last 50 games of the season, and a staggering 42 in 61 so far this season.

No, he doesnt move like he used to.

No, hes not wreaking havoc on every shift these days.

Yes, there are some shifts when it looks like his controller was unplugged, his feet barely moving until a teammate slides a puck his way in that left circle then, boom, goal.

Hes 39 years old, the fourth-oldest player in the league.

TNT broadcaster Darren Pang recently caught flak for calling Ovechkin a one-trick pony, and at this stage of his career, maybe he kind of is.

But its one hell of a trick.

And he keeps pulling it off, time and time and time again.

(Photo: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images).

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