Alex Ovechkin cemented himself as the greatest goal scorer in NHL history after surpassing Wayne Gretzky against the Islanders!
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00:00Danny, it happened. We had a watch party at Caddy's in Bethesda. We were together with
00:05dozens of our listeners. We had ourselves a day, didn't we? That was just incredible.
00:10Incredible. It's fascinating to watch it in a group like that. And thanks to the folks at
00:15Caddy's for having us. That was a blast. That was so much fun to hang out with so many listeners.
00:18And everyone was like mine that eaten their wings and watching the cap skate
00:22didn't play very well, but that's secondary to this astounding achievement. It was kind of cool.
00:28I think Ovi had six shifts in the first period, right? Which, you know, the shorter shifts,
00:32I think 40 seconds on average, give or take a little bit unusual for him. They were kind of
00:36sleepwalking through that first period. But there was this interesting phenomenon. I don't know if
00:40you caught this. As everybody's watching the game, eating their wings, having conversation,
00:45he would take the ice. Somebody in every group would kind of realize it. And then sort of the
00:50din, all the voices would kind of start to quiet and everyone was glued to the screen.
00:55And they'd watch it. And if he toured or when he didn't score, he would kind of go back to normal
00:59in the second period. Okay. Now there's a power play. So now, you know, Hey, he's on the ice.
01:04He's over the boards. Everybody's kind of watch with anticipation, getting their phones ready.
01:08And sure enough, you see that play develop in slow motion, the shot. Perfect. It's him. Like
01:15it was the way you'd want it to happen pretty much. Right. Corrals and elite pass from Tom Wilson,
01:19a little bit behind him. Doesn't matter the greatest shot that's ever shot in the NHL,
01:24the greatest goal score of all time hit a perfect one. And the place went crazy.
01:28It's awesome. Oh, that's in office power pay a power play. Perfect. You can't do it any better.
01:36That's what the statue is going to be in gathering that puck or the follow through
01:41or him getting ready with his stick in the air to, you know, on a one-timer,
01:45which this one wasn't necessarily corralled it and risked it at home, but we should have known, man.
01:50Yeah. If you look at sports history for events like this, there's always some type of symmetry.
01:56It feels like yesterday was April 6th on April 6th, 1980, Gordy house scored his 801st and final
02:05career goal in the NHL on April 6th, 2004, the capitals won the draft lottery that resulted in
02:13drafting Alex Ovechkin the exact date yesterday, 21 years earlier. And then April 6th, 25 Ovi
02:22becomes the all-time goals record holder. The other crazy stat I've seen floating around
02:29was that yesterday was game 1,487 for Ovi. That's how many games Wayne Gretzky played in,
02:37in his career to score 894 goals, 1, 4, 8, 7 games, 894 goals, Ovi 1, 4, 8, 7 games now 895
02:49goals. And to that, I say sports it's the best. Isn't that incredible sports man. And that includes
02:56by the way, for Gretzky, a 92 goal season and 87 goal season, just times were different. He had,
03:01these are, these were years. We have 200 plus points. Just nobody was even close in that regard.
03:06I mean, just to quantify this thing, he scored 50 goals a year for 15 years. Great career. You're
03:12not even sniffing this. You're not close. That was awesome. Great job. That's adorable. Get your
03:18hall of fame plaque a few years after you're done, which nobody's done. You say it like,
03:22if you just did this, this thing that no one can do, if you did this impossible feat, which the
03:26game doesn't allow for, you're not even close to this number. It's so staggering. I think what's
03:32most amazing about this record falling, which was long thought to be unachievable, not unlike
03:38Cal Ripken jr. Surpassing Lou Gehrig, or I'm quite sure that the home run record for Maris and mantle
03:46with Ruth originally. And then those guys until bonds hit it just like now sitting at 73,
03:52they are viewed as unbreakable. Right. And I think the reason why is that father time is undefeated
03:58and eventually in its belt with Alex Ovechkin father time's going to win, but it ain't right
04:04now. Nope. Ovi is delivering the blows later and deeper into the fight than just about anybody has
04:10Gretzky for all of his exploits. The greatest player of all time,
04:14nine goals at 39 years old, man, Alex Ovechkin having missed 16 games with a broken bone in his
04:23leg would be on his way right now to possibly 60 this season. He's sitting in the mid forties.
04:31He would be at 50 pretty easily if not for that injury this year as a near 40 year old.
04:39And I think that's the thing that's getting a little bit lost in the celebration of the career
04:44is I think this year is almost as or more amazing than the career accomplishment of Alex Ovechkin.
04:52I think it's, I think you're dead right about that, by the way, because the, we saw it again,
04:58the first half of last season, you kind of went, you know, quietly in places you don't really want
05:03to talk about in public. Okay. Maybe this is, this is how it has to happen. You limp along,
05:08you get 20, no shame in it, by the way. You know what I mean? If you're going to break a record
05:13like this, the last few years may not be as pretty as some of the early ones in the, in your prime.
05:17I'm fine with it, by the way, a team on the fringe of playoff contention,
05:21a couple of veterans playing out the string, just enough to set him up from his office.
05:24A couple of times, maybe have a couple of leads, a couple of empty net goals to get him going, but
05:28let's do 20 a year. Maybe what let's do three more seasons. You have to extend it, but we'll
05:33see what happens. And then of course he caught fire in the second half last year. And it's been
05:37like that ever since without doing the stuff that he used to have to do to go get those goals.
05:42He's just, I mean, you could see the, if you have the ISO cam on him,
05:45on that record setter, he's letting everybody else drive the net, do the dirty work, just sort
05:49of gliding around, you know, like Lionel messy. Now, if that's the best cop I can come up with
05:54in terms of soccer, he's not sprinting around like everybody else does. He just sort of
05:58walks and lays and wait. And that's what a Vetchkin is doing. Let someone else drive the net
06:02slides to his spot, receives that pass in the shot, still the shot, man.
06:06And he's getting them grimy. He's still getting them with that elite shot, but 42 goals with a
06:11dozen plus fewer games than everybody else. He's among the league leaders. It's stupid.
06:15He can't stop scoring five straight games with a goal right now. Six in his last five,
06:21seven in his last seven, eight in his last nine, nine in his last 11. He is on one of the great
06:29heaters of his career right now, this moment, as he had all the pressure of the record,
06:35all of the attention, all of the media, everything he's been dealing with.
06:39And he's as hot as he's ever been. And this will be the year where he scores at the greatest rate
06:44of his career in terms of goals per minute on ice goals per game. This is the best that it's
06:50been for a guy who was the greatest goal scorer of all time. It just doesn't make any sense.
06:56Let's go through some of the calls from yesterday. I'm a sucker for big calls on broadcasts with
07:01history on the line. So why don't we start with monumental sports, Joby and Locker,
07:06a couple of things to pay attention to here. Number one, Locker's back. We weren't sure if
07:11he was even going to be around when this record broke because he had open heart surgery several
07:16weeks back. Craig Laughlin fought, scratched, clawed, got back and was in the booth for this,
07:21number one. Number two, we weren't sure if monumental would be on the call because the
07:26nationally televised games at the end of their schedule were bountiful. The networks had
07:31exclusivity. They struck a deal. We'll have to ask Ted Leonsis about this when he joins us at four
07:37to be able to call this game. And this was several days out, but it wasn't like they were going to
07:40get all the games. So the stars aligned perfectly for Joby and Locker, who were on the call of
07:45Obie's first career goal ever. Just about every single goal since. You know, the guys that have
07:50been here for all 20 years chronicling his career to be on the mic. And then you had Joby, who's
07:55amazing with a perfect call. And you had Locker, who's the best at what he does with each of these
08:01big moments, by the way, allowing the crowd, the moment, the visuals of TV, the mobbing of his
08:06teammates to tell the story. He sits out for 15, 18 seconds before he offers that patented voice,
08:13that iconic Loughlin take. He sits there and waits and lets you soak up the moment. But this was the
08:19call locally on Monumental Sports yesterday. Send in Wilson on the flank, cross-eyes Ovechkin,
08:24fires, scores! The chasing days are done! Alex Ovechkin is the greatest gold scorer
08:35in the history of the NHL!
08:54By the way, how about the response on Long Island?
09:12Amazing.
09:13Yesterday, from the visiting crowd, you know, all of those blue sweaters standing up,
09:17and there were a million.
09:18There's a ton of Caps fans, yeah.
09:20Cakes made the trip. I know media-wise we had, you know, Chris Russell was up there and J.P.
09:24Finley I saw all over our social stuff yesterday, and they were working. We were well represented,
09:29but I mean, from a fan standpoint, thousands of Caps fans made that trip. I had no fewer than
09:34seven or eight buddies texting me while they're getting on the flight or driving up their road
09:38trip in yesterday. I'd imagine it was 30, 40 percent Caps fans.
09:43At least. I mean, you saw them sprinkled throughout, but it was, you know, loud enough,
09:48and I guess, you know, again, good for the, uh, for the, you know, New England, no, I'm
09:51New England, uh, for the Long Islander fans to sort of get that.
09:55It was bigger than anything else, right? Just the recognition of it. It sounded like a wind tunnel
10:00and people like pounding on the door to get in. It was like this jet engine that went off, this roar,
10:04and the ovation was thunderous. It was continuous. Then when it would die down,
10:08there was another moment of like an Ovechkin wave or why should the Capitals go? I know it
10:13wasn't West Johnson, but you know, when the announcement happens again, it's boom.
10:16Then the ceremony happens and the, and they get up again. It was spectacular.
10:20I still would have preferentially in a perfect world, love to have seen it happen at home,
10:26but I didn't not want them to score. And it was perfect. We were at the watch party
10:31power play starts. It's been a sluggish game. You just kind of have a feeling like,
10:35because it's Ovi, it's the power play. He's going to get an opportunity. And as you said,
10:39everybody's locked in, people are standing and he scores and all the folks that we'd
10:43talked to that had tickets that this coming Thursday against Carolina that said, Hey,
10:47let's hope he doesn't score today. So I can see it. They were clapping. They were hugging.
10:51They were emotional. It's not like anybody was rooting against it. Would it have been perfect
10:55at home? Sure. Yesterday was pretty special too, with the traveling NHL circus of sorts,
11:01where they're down on the ice, they're bringing Gretzky down and they're rolling out the carpet
11:05mid game with 12 minutes left in the second period. And they're doing what was a really
11:08touching, brilliant celebration of Alex Ovechkin give the NHL a lot of credit and Gary Bettman.
11:14I thought they rolled out the red carpet literally and figuratively and did a nice job.
11:18The Capitol's always crushed whatever this is like special things for the organization.
11:22You knew they were going to do it in a really awesome way. And they certainly are just getting
11:26started because I'd imagine there's going to be a hell of a party on Thursday night at Capitol
11:31when the conquering hero comes home. You know, we forget Friday night, this whole thing started.
11:36So we were on air live at city tap house before the game. And we're joking all day long. Maybe
11:40he gets a hat trick or maybe he gets a couple and ties it up. And he damn near did the likeliness
11:45of that happening was like 0% right. He scored two goals, greatest environment I've ever been
11:51in. And as a sports fan, not stick, I can further explain if you need me to, but he had another
11:56seven or eight opportunities. And even at the end of the game, in the third period,
11:59turn down open net stuff, three or four near more often than not, that's a goal type opportunities
12:05to get a hat trick and break the whole thing. And then with the empty net, they could have sent
12:08him out there. He elected not to go out and break it on an empty net, but he almost ended the thing
12:14on Friday night at home. I mean, it, I was saying to some folks there before the game started
12:19talking about that cat is on, on Sunday. Do you think he does it? And actually said, no, not,
12:24I don't mean ever. I mean, today I go this now after Friday, I go, it now feels like a show.
12:31Like it feels like a scripted program where this impossible thing happens and you can now
12:37throw out any sort of, I don't know the ups and downs and undulations. And it feels like the TV
12:42writers got together and go, this is how the show is going to go. There's a lot of backdrop to this
12:45Carolina game. There's extra punch. It is extra chippiness. So it's going to be a home environment.
12:50And this is where it's going to end up happening. But of course it ended up being just a storybook
12:53on the road. And I was really pleased to see that. Honestly, I mean, for me, it was, it was less
12:56about like what we got and about what he got. I was worried that like, if there's a bunch of
13:00Islander fans who are like, you know, can't put anything aside or just like bowing him or whatever,
13:05or like didn't, weren't into it. And the innovation wasn't that good. I was never
13:08concerned about that. So I was, and that was my thing is I want him to make sure that I want
13:12the flowers to be there. And they were so to me, it works out. I didn't care about whether it's
13:16home or away. One hockey fans are different. There is a respect and a reverence in the big moment.
13:22Two, I don't think there's a sport where that would happen. Maybe internationally,
13:25something I don't know about, but when it's time to just have some decorum and some respect,
13:31generally, that's what sports are all about. That's why we play them to learn those lessons.
13:35And you saw it honestly, every step of the way, when he's scoring against teams on the road for
13:41big milestones, 500, 600, 700, 800, whatever it was, they always kind of rose to the occasion.
13:46See, I thought that would certainly be the case, but to me, I just thought it would be more special
13:50for him and his family and for the organization and for the fans. Big part of this thing,
13:56let's face it, nearly 20,000 of them strong in red. If it happened at home, was it perfect?
14:02Close to it. I mean, I don't know that I would change much yesterday. That was about as good
14:06as it gets. You realize he scored 18.6% of their goals since his debut as an organization. Think
14:14about that. Since the moment he debuted 20 years ago, it's so stupid. Alex Ovechkin has scored
14:19about 19% one-fifth of the Capitol's goals. That is preposterous. This was John Walton's call,
14:29as heard yesterday, right here on the Capitol's radio network.
14:33Carlson will make his way to the neutralized, dropping it for Dylan
14:39Strom. He and Chickren will team up and glide through center, right side to Wilson, centered
14:43up. Ovechkin has it, he scores! He scores! Alex Ovechkin scores 895. There's a new goal scoring
14:55champion and his name is Alexander Ovechkin. He has done it here on Long Island. His teammates
15:07love him. There is but one Alexander the Great, the greatest to ever do it in national hockey league
15:17history. Come on. The beauty of this, there's a lot of ways you can go, I think, with any
15:26celebratory first thought on Ovechkin. For me, it's very simple. Every single one of them was
15:31scored as a Capitol. That's it. Go back through the annals of the great goal scorers,
15:36Gretzky or anybody else, and they bounced around and they were a hired gun and they scored for a
15:41lot of teams. Not this guy. He signed a 13-year deal at nine and a half million per, back when
15:50it was considered insane for Ted Leonsis, who's joining us at four o'clock today, to give him that
15:55contract. And then he signed another five-year deal for 47 and a half mil, nine and a half per.
16:01Oddly enough in the league, 13 years later, same AAV, not a whole lot of growth, but the
16:06cap has since exploded, thanks to the exploits of players like Ovechkin.
16:11But because he spent now 21 years and 20 seasons, because of the work stoppage after he was drafted,
16:18in one organization, every one of them was for us. Every one of them was celebrated here.
16:24And there are thousands of people listening, Danny, that are just like me,
16:29who have been in the barn for hundreds of them, who have benefited emotionally, and who have,
16:34as a fan, gotten a ton out of each of those highlight goals. Whether it's from his back
16:41in Phoenix, or off the sidewall around Roman Hamerlich, or scoring as he's sliding into the
16:48goal cage, or dangling through defenders like Akup through traffic, or the blast from the
16:55office that became patented. The amount of joy he's given us over 20 years, no other player
17:02in the history of the town has. To me, that's what was so emotional about yesterday.
17:08He was ours on day one, he's ours today, and he's been ours every single day since. How many guys
17:13can you say that about in the history of DC sports? Yeah, there's no adding it up, right?
17:17There's no cumulative total. For a while, he was in Philadelphia for this many, New York for this
17:22many, Detroit for this many. As you said, it's all here. Every one of them's here, and that's
17:27incredibly rare. I mean, in all sports, and it's not anything's malicious, doesn't make
17:31an achievement lesser for other guys that have put together those kinds of numbers.
17:36But it just, I don't know, it just feels more significant. It's one of those,
17:39it makes it extra special, right? That every one of those, as you said, goal number one,
17:43and goal 895, and every one sandwiched in between for the bookends, Washington Capitals uniform,
17:48dude, rock in the red, for the exception of the occasional alternate jersey.
17:51But it was here. You know what I mean? Like, that is that much more, like, there's nobody else that
17:56gets to share our thing. It's a league celebration. Everybody's happy for him. They did a nice job,
18:01but everyone's got to look at us. You know what I mean? We're not, we're not going,
18:05yeah, there's 230 as a Minnesota North star, whatever. No, there ain't. 895 all right here.
18:10DC was the epicenter. The Caps were the whole, I love that story. This was about Washington,
18:18DC and hockey in this town, which he has made a thing. Yes, they saved the Caps in the seventies,
18:23and thank you to those people who did. And yes, they got to a Stanley Cup when I was
18:29nine years old, back in the late nineties. And that made this town for a short time,
18:36go puck crazy. But that was not sustainable and didn't lead to a packed house with everybody
18:42wearing the same thing at us air arena. Or I guess they had just gotten over to the Capitol
18:48one arena shortly thereafter. Ovi did that. Ovi is the reason why when I was a kid and I couldn't
18:55find a sheet of ice. And the first time I ever skated was when something opened 40 minutes from
18:58my house in middle school for my buddy's birthday party. Now my kids, four years old wearing his
19:03Jersey skating and he's a year behind all the kids that started at three at the St. James.
19:08He's the reason for all of that. We don't understand if you're, if you're my age
19:11and older, you know, you want to be on ice skates. You either had to have somebody,
19:15a rich friend who went to belong to one of the couple of country clubs that had an ice rink.
19:18And I'm not Jonah. That's, that's what it was. You went to cabin John Georgetown. When,
19:23when it was cold enough, you could, you could pay somebody to skate outdoors or go to Fort Dupont.
19:27There weren't ice rinks. There weren't hockey teams. My intrigue with hockey was the ice
19:31because it was such a foreign concept. These guys ice skating was like, I don't know,
19:36a fireman fighting a fire. It was this thing that no one else gets to do that. They're really good
19:41at when I was a little kid, nobody had ice in King George County. We still have to drive probably to
19:46Fredericksburg best I can tell you, but it was central park. They opened it up when I was in
19:50middle school and I walked out there like a Rottweiler on a linoleum floor in middle school.
19:54Like this is what Brendan whit does backwards. This is what Jeff Halpern and Kelly Johansson
20:01are up to. This is why with all due respect to Kelly Miller and Michael Pavanca and Don
20:06Beaupre, the dozens of guys that I watched in the eighties and nineties, it was fun.
20:11You know, you go to us air arena, whatever the hell the thing was called and Landover
20:14capital center. We had good games, good memories, a lot of heartbreak and some
20:18horrible things where you get gut punched and you leads and you'd lose them and whatever,
20:22but it was, it was fun. It was fine, but it wasn't like this again. There are the same way.
20:27There's a baseball team that your kid can play on that. That goes up to other cities,
20:30soccer, club stuff, all the things that were normal. Hockey's just as ubiquitous now because
20:36of him.