In collaboration with Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, ESPN & The Walt Disney Company will present a one-hour multi-platform storytelling event, “GR8TNESS,” documenting Ovechkin’s historic goal-scoring milestone and record-breaking career to date. Ovechkin made history on December 23, 2022, when he scored his 802nd career goal against the Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena, passing Gordie Howe for second place on the NHL’s all-time goals list. The 60-minute show will debut before the 2023 NHL All-Star Game on Saturday, February 4 at 2 p.m. on ABC. The show will also be available to watch on ESPN+ following the TV premiere.
“GR8TNESS,” reported by ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, includes historic footage, special access, and a series of exclusive sit-down interviews with Ovechkin himself, as well as the NHL all-time leading goal scorer Wayne Gretzky, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan, Capitals coach Peter Laviolette, and Ovechkin’s teammates to provide the foundation for an on-ice perspective into the greatest goal scorer of a generation. The special also contains a roundtable discussion hosted by ESPN’s John Buccigross with ESPN on NHL analyst Rick DiPietro reflecting upon the 37-year-old’s illustrious career and future.
Via ESPN
14 Comments
My favourite player since he came into the league, this guys a beast. Ovi!!!
he will get 1,000
Ови достояние 🇷🇺
My favorite team is the Washington Capitals Team and I am so happy and lucky to have the second and almost the first best goal score on the ice rink . Watching him in person and on ice no better feeling it’s definitely better in person
He's a freight train that can score pretty much at will….and on top of it he's got the personality…..one of a kind we'll likely never see again in professional hockey….I want to be at the game he breaks Wayne's record
Is there any way to watch this outside the US?
Everybody has stopped asking the question if he will pass Wayne Gretzky but the real answer is when he will do it
Если сначала лига раскручивала сюжет «противостояние двух лучших игроков поколения» — Кросби и Овечкин, то теперь Саша вырос из этих коротких штанишек и дал НХЛ повод раскручивать новую идею — противостояние Овечкина и Гретцки за первый номер в истории. Неплохо, для старика))
sorry to rain on the parade, but to me ovechkin is at most a two dimensional player–a great wrist/half slap from the left face off dot and an occasional thumping hit, but there's no way he can compare to all around players like howe, gretzky or orr. shocked to see how well he passed in the all star game to crosby, because his passing and creativity have always been subpar. again, sorry…
Alexandr the greatest
where can i watch this without paying
Where can I watch the full thing? Thanks for sharing the trailer!
The average league performance after 2005 (when Ovi joined the NHL) is significantly lower than in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the 80s, the performance per match ranged from 7 to 8 goals, and the most “fun” season was the 1981/82 championship – 8.03 goals (it was in that year that Gretzky set an all-time record – 92 goals in the regular season). In the first half of the 90s, the performance in the NHL was slowly declining (with the exception of the 1992/93 championship), and in the 1996/97 season there was a sharp decrease in this indicator – to 5.83 goals per game. In the 2003/04 regular season, the performance dropped to a terrible 5.14 goals.
This may be due to increased competition in the NHL. After the collapse of the USSR, many hockey players who played in the countries of the Warsaw Pact moved to play in the NHL. The best players on the planet are playing in North America right now. During the Gretzky era, there were almost no Europeans in the NHL. In the 1983/84 season. Only 50 foreigners played in the NHL.
Ovechkin came into the league during the "dead puck era," playing against bigger, faster goaltenders who are equipped to look like they're working as fighting dog training dummies. The defenders have also become very large. Gretzky scored half of his goals on some skinny, dangling fools who jumped 5 meters out of the “frame”, trying to cut the corner, and then fell onto the ice.
In the 1988-1989 season. in the regular season of the NHL, 1 field player from the countries of the former USSR played, after the collapse of the USSR in the 1991-1992 season. 24 field players played in the 1993-1994 season. – 63, and in 2003/04. – 71. As can be seen from the figures, the higher the field players from the countries of the former USSR played, the lower the performance in the NHL. The performance is correlated with the number of players playing in the NHL from the countries of the former USSR.
From 1975 to 1991, the clubs of the USSR played 108 matches with the teams of the National Hockey League. During this time, the clubs of the USSR won 58 victories, 10 matches ended in a draw and lost 40 times to the representatives of the NHL.
In 1990/91 USSR clubs won 17 times against NHL clubs, lost 8 times and drew 3 times. This indicates the high competitiveness of Soviet hockey players.
Meetings of the owner of the Stanley Cup with the champion of the USSR, who became in the season in which the match took place:
12/29/1979 New York Islanders – CSKA – 2:3
12/31/1985 Montreal Canadiens – CSKA – 1:6
01/12/1991 Pittsburgh Penguins – Dynamo (Moscow) – 3:4
For example, the results of the teams in which Gretzky played at that time against the teams of the USSR:
01/04/1980 Edmonton Oilers – Dynamo (Moscow) – 1:4
12/27/1985 Edmonton Oilers – CSKA – 3:6
12/31/1988 Los Angeles Kings – Dynamo (Riga) – 3:5
12/04/1989 Los Angeles Kings – Khimik (Voskresensk) – 3:6
12/03/1990 Los Angeles Kings – Khimik (Voskresensk) – 5:1
Also, the symbolic team of the century included 4 players who played in the USSR championships and 2 players who played in the NHL. The six members of the symbolic team were chosen by voting organized by the IIHF. The selection committee included 56 hockey experts from 16 countries in Europe and North America.
Symbolic team of the century:
Goalkeeper: Vladislav Tretiak (USSR) – 30 votes.
Defender: Vyacheslav Fetisov (USSR) – 54 votes.
Defender: Börje Salming (Sweden) – 17 votes.
Wing: Valery Kharlamov (USSR) – 21 votes.
Wing: Sergei Makarov (USSR) – 18 votes.
Center forward: Wayne Gretzky (Canada) – 38 votes
Ovechkin played in the NHL with more competition than Gretzky. But you can compare the results of these players, at the time when the Soviet players started playing in the NHL.
Gretzky played 373 games in the NHL from 1993 to 1998 and scored 120 goals (averaging 0.32 goals per game) at the age of 32-36. Ovechkin, aged 32-36 (from 2017 to 2022), played 353 games in the NHL and scored 222 goals (an average of 0.63 goals per game).
Gretzky played 721 NHL games and scored 302 goals from 1988 to 1998 (averaging 0.42 goals per game) at the age of 27-36. Ovechkin, aged 27-36 (from 2012 to 2022), played 721 games in the NHL and scored 441 goals (an average of 0.61 goals per game).
During these periods, Ovechkin won against Gretzky in the number of goals scored.
In addition, rules contributed to increased performance in the 1980s. Goalkeepers wore narrow shin guards, less sturdy helmets, and play skates, rather than goalie skates, as they are now. Video replays in the league were introduced only in 1991, when Gretzky had already crossed the equator of his career and stopped scoring goals with automatic bursts. In 1993, they changed the rules for playing with a high stick – it was forbidden to lift it above the crossbar, and before that it was allowed to swing up to the shoulder. In 1996, when Gretzky was three years away from retiring from the sport, a trapezoid was introduced – they outlined a section of ice on which the field was forbidden to contact the goalkeepers.
Ovechkin also won against Gretzky in the number of seasons in which they became the best scorers.
Number of seasons in which the player became the best scorer:
1. Alexander Ovechkin – 9 seasons
2. Bobby Hull – 7 seasons
3. Phil Esposito – 6 seasons
4. Wayne Gretzky – 5 seasons
5. Gordie Howe – 5 seasons
6. Maurice Richard – 5 seasons
7. Charlie Conacher – 5 seasons
8. Pavel Bure – 3 seasons
9. Teemu Selanne – Season 3
10. Mario Lemieux – 3 seasons
11. Brett Hull – 3 seasons
12. Bill Cook – 3 seasons
13. Babe Dy – 3 seasons
Wayne Gretzky never became the best sniper after 1991, that is, when, after the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, European players poured into the NHL (the number of Europeans in the NHL became more than 5 times), and the competition in the NHL itself increased! And Gretzky's performance dropped noticeably. Wayne Gretzky himself said in an interview that it’s harder to score now than when he was playing (I quote him: “To score 13 goals now – and this is just my opinion – is much more difficult than to score 15 goals, as I did in '93. ").
Ovechkin plays at a time when the NHL became the strongest league in the world, and Gretzky scored the most goals in the 80s, and at that time, as the results of the matches and the composition of the symbolic team of the century showed, the USSR championship was the strongest league in the world.
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