Anyone watching the Capitals/Rangers game on Wednesday heard colorman Darren Pang make a few outrageous statements about Alex Ovechkin, as Ovi is on the verge of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record.
“I give Spencer Carbery and his coaching staff an awful lot of credit,” Pang said on the broadcast. “We all know that Alex Ovechkin’s been a bit of a one-trick pony throughout his NHL career, but that has not been the case [this season].”
This is quite a statement about most of Ovi’s career, even if it’s meant to compliment his play as of late. Even the Capitals poked fun at Pang after Ovi scored the game-tying goal in the Caps’ 3-2 overtime win. Apparently, Ovi used to just score from his office, his only ‘trick,’ and Carbery’s coaching made him better, or something.
Countless articles have been written about Ovechkin’s skills and leadership throughout his career. Another obvious ‘trick’ is Ovi’s physicality. He is no. 3 in hits since 2005-06. Some players earn a living only hitting players, which could very well be their only trick.
Pang went further, complaining that Ovi has benefitted from the overtime rules in the 3-on-3 era, which led to more goals. “Facts are facts,” Pang harrumphed, especially when it was noted that Gretzky only had two overtime goals in his career, when teams played 5-on-5.
It is absolutely true that some rules in the modern era have opened the door for more scoring. I’ve written about this at great length. Getting rid of the two-line pass, adding the trapezoid, changing the overtime rules to 4-on-4, and then 3-on-3, the use of lighter sticks, and teams pulling goalies sooner have boosted scoring in recent years. But these rules weren’t added after the 1980s, when scoring was at an all-time high… they were added after the 1990s, when teams deployed the trap defense, goaltending improved, and scoring plummeted.
Yet, even with the rule changes, scoring still isn’t what it was in Gretzky’s heyday. Adjusting stats for the era is one way of comparing numbers. Ovi leads in that, while Gretzky is in fourth place. It’s also worth imagining how Ovi would’ve been had he played in the 1980s.
Either way, it is true that Ovi has some advantages now, but Gretzky had more advantages in his era, as he got to shoot on goalies like Pang himself, who had a career GAA of 4.05 with the Chicago Blackhawks.
In any case, to call the best goal scorer of all time, who won three league MVPs and countless other trophies a ‘one-trick pony’ is not only absurd, but disqualifying. As Ovechkin inches closer to the all-time record, national broadcasts shouldn’t be hosted by announcers who don’t recognize the uniqueness of such a player.
UPDATE: Pang denied saying it, even though it was on video.
NHL Record or Not, Alex Ovechkin Is the Greatest Goal Scorer of All Time
