The Official 2024-25 Season Talk Thread

[Majingir]

Ovechkin ties Gretzky!

[Psyblast]

Having grown up in the yawning, gaping chasm of the Dead Puck Era*, what a thing to see. Spectacular.

*As an aside: What Pavel Bure did in 2000 and 2001 should be examined by hockey scientists. The equivalent of Pedro Martinez's 1999 and 2000 seasons when everyone was juiced.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by Psyblast

Having grown up in the yawning, gaping chasm of the Dead Puck Era*, what a thing to see. Spectacular. *As an aside: What Pavel Bure did in 2000 and 2001 should be examined by hockey scientists. The equivalent of Pedro Martinez's 1999 and 2000 seasons when everyone was juiced.

Ovechkin breaking it is even more impressive given the era.

The "adjusted goals" stat shows how truly dominant Ovechkin is.

Doing what he's done while many of the seasons he was part of was during days in the NHL that didn't have the 6-5 scores that Gretzky's era did.

[DrJones]

Never thought I'd ever see this record broken. Truly a stunning accomplishment.

I can take or leave adjusted goals/points, though (or at least how Hockey Reference calculates them). Not giving a lot of credence to any "advanced" stat that tells me Brad Marchand was a better sniper than Guy Lafleur.

[slickdtc]

Dude has been on a mission this year. Say what you will about cherry picking or whatever, but ya still gotta deposit the puck into the back of the net and no one has had a nose for it like Ovie has over the past 20 years.

He was a total freight train early in his career. He had the puck, you could tell because he moved faster, he skated stronger, he had that sick tinted visor. McDavid and MacKinnon have made 150 pt seasons cool again but Ovie brought scoring back with over 60 early in his career. Glad he got his Cup a few years back so we don’t have to talk about junk.

It has been a pleasure and a hell of a thrill watching him chase down this record. A nice cap on the season.

[DrJones]

It's kind of amazing that both Crosby and Ovechkin have (at least) lived up to their billing.

- Crosby is likely going to finish 4th/5th on the all-time scoring list; Ovechkin is going to break the most important record in hockey and finish 10th on the all-time scoring list

- Crosby has maintained a Howe-like level of sustained all-around excellence over 20 years despite losing 100 games of his offensive zenith to injury; Ovi has gradually adapted his game from unstoppable wrecking ball-slash-goal machine to rival Howe as the greatest "old man" scorer ever, while staying remarkably healthy given his playing style

- Crosby has had more team success on both the NHL and international level, and scored one of the most memorable goals in hockey history; Ovechkin has been perhaps the most exciting player in history (Ovi is 2nd on my biased ballot behind Pavel Bure) and authored the most compelling heartbreak-to-triumph Cup run ever

- While not quite on the Gretzky/Lemieux level of all-time greatness, Crosby/Ovechkin easily tops them all when it comes to superstar-a-superstar personal rivalry (I wasn't around to judge Howe vs Richard)

- Despite Sid's early bouts of whininess (although he was definitely less of a complainer than Gretzky or Mario before him) and Ovi's... questionable taste in Instagram friends, both have avoided personal scandal and remained pretty likable in general

- Both will finish their 20+ year careers with the teams that drafted them! Among the top-30 scorers in NHL history, only Yzerman, Mario, Sakic, and Stan Mikita can claim that*

*Malkin and (maybe) Kopitar will join this list in the next couple seasons

[DrJones]

It'll be pretty funny if the Leafs finally clutch up and win their division but end up getting the Panthers (and a "suddenly healthy" Matthew Tkachuk) in the 1st round anyway.

[DrJones]

Sid scoring a hat trick on the same weekend Ovi (presumably) passes Gretzky kinda underscores the point.
Also did the Jets a big solid in the process.