The Athletic Hockey Show - Was Ovechkin's record-breaking goal worth the wait? | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: April 6, 2025

Jesse Granger and Sean McIndoe react to history being made as Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scores his 895th career NHL goal, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record. Ovechkin scored the goal vs. countryman Ilya Sorokin and the New York Islanders. Sean Gentille, who witnessed the historic goal live at UBS Arena in New York, stops by to add his opinion on the great feat by Ovechkin, who stands alone now as the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL.Hosts: Jesse Granger and Sean McIndoeWith Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. All right. And welcome everybody to a special edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm sure you are all watching it. We were. I'm joined here by Sean McIndoo in Ottawa, Jesse Granger here in Las Vegas, where NHL history was made this morning for me,

the afternoon for some of you on Long Island. We're going to hear from the Athletic Sean Gentilly, who is at the game at UBS Arena on Long Island. But for now, let's talk, Sean, NHL history was made. Sure was. Let's just get into it. What did you think of the goal itself? Was it a worthy goal?

Because I feel like as it became increasingly likely and eventually inevitable that this moment was going to happen this season, we all had it in the back of our mind. Would it get reviewed? Would it be an empty net? A scenario I kept thinking about would it be one of those goals where you're not actually sure who gets it in the, you know, Was it tipped? Was it who got the stick on it? Instead, pretty close to the classic OV. Not quite the full-on, you know, one-timer, but pretty close.

I give it a nine out of ten. What about you? Yeah, I think that's a good score. It wasn't the one T, but it was the spot that he always scores from. And it was a ripper of a wrist shot. I mean, he put everything he had into that shot. And I mean, every time he touched the puck for the last two games, it's just been fired it on net.

Like there's very little thought to pass. So we all knew it was coming. But I will say nine out of ten is a great score because Sorokin was screened on it. You know, the goalie in me. Here we go. Here we go with them defending the goalie. Then it would have been a 10 out of 10. But the fact that there was a screen, it was a beautiful screen in front.

He picked that corner. But I love that it was a ripper of a wrist shot. It wasn't a deflection. Because he could have scored a deflection. That's a skilled goal. But that's not like the goal. or goal. The guy who he's now the greatest goal score in the history of the sport, he scored a goal scorer's goal to break the record. It was pretty great. I got to say, you're right, he was

screened because, and I don't know who the Islander's defender was, but it was, it was Chikran, who was going kind of to the net. And I got to say, especially after the ceremony, when they started showing replays, every time I, the puck got near Chick, I'm like, turn this replay off. I do not. The last thing we need is to do all of that and then see that there's like, oh, actually, kind of hit him in the pant leg on the way by and tipped in. And now they got to, you got to bring old Vetchkin's family back out and take all the gifts away and all of that stuff. So I don't want to see those replays. I just want to see the, him team teeing it up and ripping it.

Now, the goal, 9 out of 10, where are we at on the celebration? Yes, that's exactly where I wanted to go next. So we gave the goal a 9 out of 10. And the celebration, I feel like we had talked about that almost as much as what type of goal it's going to be like. I had seen people maybe, is he going to do the hot stick one more time where he, where he stands around it? Or is he going to just do the no really celebration? Just you're excited.

So you pump your fist. You did the soccer dive onto your belly and slide on the ice. What score do you give it out of 10? Yeah. I'm still kind of percolating on that one. You know what? If, I mean, if you're going to celebrate, you might as well break out something memorable. So, I mean, that was, that was pretty good.

I think it was, you know, he didn't, he didn't get the distance on it. Right. You would like to see if you're going to go to the ice. I mean, you know, I'm not, Theo Fleur's record will never be broken, but, you know, maybe you'd like to get a little bit more, but it was pretty good. It's, again, I might go like eight, maybe even a nine out of ten on the Selly. Not Timoslani. I feel like that is where the bar has been set, but still pretty pretty good.

Yeah, our producer, Jeff Domes. giving it a 15 out of 10 on the Selly. I'm going to, I'm going to take a couple points off for the same reason you did. I love the idea of the soccer diving on the belly, but he needed a couple more strides to get some more speed so that when he hit the ice, he really had a little more momentum. He only slid like maybe a foot and then he was just mobbed by his teammates. But the fact that he didn't, like the fact that the celebration wasn't perfect shows you just how excited he like you could tell it was rush like he he was so pumped and you know he had thought

about it and he just dove on the like he it just he dove on the ice before he even had the speed to get the full slide you could tell that it was just everything was happening in his head all at once and he just wasn't ready and and i do want to also just do a little hat tip glove tap to the the crowd in new york obviously lots and lots of capitals fans there uh but uh you know we we all kind of it would have been better for him to do it at home home, obviously. But that was a great environment. The one thing I did, I really noticed was having the game on while I was putting together my column for tomorrow. There was never any question of, oh, is Ovi on the ice? You could just hear the crowd audibly change. Every time

he would, he would come on the ice. He didn't even need the announcers to highlight it or anything like that. And they gave it a good response. What about the ceremony? I think we were all kind of holding our breath going, how cringy is the NHL going to make this thing? What did you think of it? Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where it's impossible to not be a little awkward because you're stopping the game in the middle of a hockey game. We never do this. And you're going to give the mic to Gary Bettman.

And he was fine. He was Gary Bettman. I feel like Gretzky wanted to, like, you could see that he wanted to be gracious, but it just felt like he didn't really know what to say in the moment. You could see that it was genuine on his face. he's pumped for Ovi. The whole thing his dad told him about be as gracious when someone breaks your record as Gordy Howe was when you broke his, you could see that he was genuine in it.

I just feel like he didn't really know what to say at times. And same with Ovechkin. They both had a couple funny lines. Gretzky's comment to Leonesis, the capitals owner, about when I broke the record, I got a Rolls Royce. So you've got your hands full. Good luck finding a gift for Ovi was a good one. But yeah, I thought it was going to be awkward no matter what.

they did a pretty good job. What did you think? I hate to say this. It's devastating to me, but I got to say I thought it was really good. I thought they pretty much nailed it. Betman did his spiel and then got out of there. Like, I mean, we did not get the typical Gary Batman. Hey, I'm going to name everybody in the entire front office ownership structure of this team. He got in and out quickly. I thought Gretzky was pretty good for a guy who's never been like an elite public speaker. He handled it pretty well. He also had the joke about all the games.

He lost at NASA, which is a classic icebreaker. Get the crowd on your side. Easy, like cheap heat, cheap pop from the, from the home crowd. You got to love that.

And even like the moment where they basically gave Ovechka a mic and let him just skate around cutting a promo, you're sitting there going, oh, this could be, this could be no good. But he did pretty well. we don't hear Ovechkin like, you know, talk that much.

And, you know, and obviously English isn't the first language and all of that. I thought he was really good. Crowd was good. It was, it was an appropriate amount of time, but it didn't go on forever. They kind of got in and got out and everything went smooth. And it certainly wasn't like when Gretzky, but I can't remember if it was the goals record or the points record. but one of them in, I think it was the goals record. Like Gary Bettman brought out like a scrapbook to like give to Wayne Gretzky and you're like,

what are they? What are we doing here? Like this is, you know, we had the gift exchanges and all of that and Gretzky's wife was there for some reason. But I think overall, as much as I was sitting there going, guys, please, give me the ammo for like 10 more columns that I can write over the course of my career just about breaking down this ceremony. Tragically, I have to say, I think they did pretty well. What did you think about the painting? Because I loved it. I thought the painting was cool and I thought

it was a unique gift. Like I was wondering, is it going to be a plaque with like 895 on it? Is it going to be a stick with like the Gredski hands to him? What are they going to give him? And I thought the painting was it surprised me. It's not what I was expecting, but it was unique. And I liked it. And the fact that I guess Ovechkin like collects this painter's paintings, they mentioned is like just another layer to it. We got the guy who you, like the painter who you like, we got him to paint this for you. I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty good. I think, I think as far as the gifts go, because it's always sort of weird when they, you know, like Gretzky made the joke about the Rolls-Royce, but when it's like, you know, here's a free car for this multi-millionaire

and you're kind of sitting there going, see, need a car? I don't feel like he took the bus here. Like, I think he's probably all right. But yeah, that is sort of a neat once in a lifetime sort of sort of thing. I loved Ovechkin thanking Ilya Seroquin for letting him score the goal. Yeah. Or Ilya. Yeah. Never had given up a goal to Ovechkin until today. Boy. Is that, I mean, give me, give me the goalie's mentality here. Is there any part of you that's sort of like, well, that's kind of cool. I'm part of history or are you just like, great. This is, this is me. Like, I'm a goalie, but I'm a bad one. So I don't know, like, I don't have the right perspective.

Like I... Lots of guys have scored 895 on you. I would be pumped. Like, personally, I would be pumped to be the goalie that Wayne Gretzky broke. I mean, that Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's record against because that's something to be known for. But Ilya Serocha is already known for being one of the best goalies in the world. So I was doing his...

This is Ralph Branca part here. He wouldn't think. His perspective might be a little different than mine. I imagine he did not want to be the guy. I imagine he wanted to be the guy for the rest of his life to say, yeah, Ovi had the chance to break the record against me. I made him wait another game. You know who I feel like comes out the winner in this and the goal-tending side is Spencer Knight,

who gets to be part of the history of the tying goal, but then makes a bunch of saves in the final minutes on Friday. And so he gets to, you know, at least throw a bit of a highlight reel up there. For sure. And what you mentioned earlier about like it would have been better for him to do it at home. I think it's cool that we got the celebration the other night at home. And like that celebration was actually like the pausing of the game and all that was actually bigger. I didn't expect that when he tied it.

I thought they were just kind of treated like a normal goal. So the fact that he was able to get that celebration, he was able to skate over the glass where his kids are like in their glass seats. He got that moment and he got the moment tonight or this morning. And obviously, Islanders fans, like you said, were pretty great. Do you think this record's ever going to be broken? I mean, there are people that probably had podcasts 20 years ago that now sound like idiots who said this record would never be broken.

So I'm going to give you the chance to do that. my podcast and by Commodore 64, the fact that, I never thought this record would be broken, but it's so hard to imagine because, I mean, you just do the bat. You basically got to score a 50 goal clip for a 20-year career, which means staying healthy, staying productive,

all of that stuff. I mean, we know that Austin Matthews is, quote unquote, on pace. But, yeah, I mean,

he's in his prime. Of course, his goals per game is going to be a little bit higher than 20 years in Alexander Ovechkin. The one thing you never really know with the NHL is what's going to happen with the scoring rates overall. Like, are they going to go back up? Are they going to stay around here?

That's part of what makes what Ovechkin's done all the more amazing is that he did so much of it in the remnants of the dead puck era versus, you know, you look at some of those Wayne Gretzky highlights. And it's a little goaltending skill level is a little rough back in the 80s. So I'm going to say no, but I'm not going to say it's an unbreakable record, which is something we did used to, I mean, this used to be a record. We grouped in with the completely unbreakable ones. I won't say that, but I'd say if I had to bet, I don't think I'm going to see it in my lifetime.

Cool. Yeah, totally agreed. All right. And now we are going to be joined by Sean Jantilly, who is in the building on Long Island while history is being made. Sean, what was the feeling like walking into the building today? Did it feel like the Islanders fans were hoping that it would happen? or were they hoping that it wouldn't happen?

Man, coming into the building today, I didn't even give Islanders fans a thought, honestly. It's about Gaps fans. They took over this building completely. I think me and Arthur's staple were hanging out in the press box beforehand, trying to get a handle on what the percentage was. It was 75%, maybe.

That's the way it goes, you know. They had available tickets. They had an opportunity to watch history, and they had whatever, four-hour drive or a short train ride separating them from the whole thing. So Iles fans have been gracious. They applauded Ovechkin. They seemed like they were into the whole deal.

But, man, if you closed your eyes and didn't look at the logo on Center Ice, you'd think you're at Capital One Arena. They've totally taken over. All right. It's a little bittersweet for it to have happened on the road and not at home in D.C. But do you think it was ultimately good just for him to get it out of the way? Yeah, I guess it's better sweet in some ways. but Friday night in D.C. was incredible.

I think the caps pulled out all the stops. I think the way the game unfolded with getting one early and then tying Gretzky in the middle and having all those opportunities to pass him at the end. And there were tons, right? We had the puck on his stick a couple times. We had some missed open nets. He biffed on a breakaway.

That just kind of added to the drama. And the caps were ready for it. Like we said, they pulled out all the stops. he had teammates that were there, Nicholas Baxter's there, and Brooks Orpick, and Devante Smith Pelly, and T.J. O'Shey, and Braden Holpey. Like, it was a celebration there. The fans rewarded them.

He seemed to have a great time. So I think if they would have done stuff differently, and maybe if the game would have unfolded a little bit differently on Friday, it would have been a little bit more bittersweet, but Capps fans got a pretty great moment in person. So, no, this doesn't feel all that bittersweet to me. All right. What were your thoughts on Gretzky's reaction and the reception he received on Long Island? He obviously had a few jokes to get the crowd going. It was funny. We went down to ice level to see the celebration. And of course, D Islanders fans, Caps fans, they booed the bejes. I said to Gary Bettman as per tradition. So you know you're in a real hockey market.

And then they cheered Gretzky, which is also how you know you're in a real hockey market. It was on, on, par with what we saw from what in Washington um i'm not surprised that islanders fans returned the favor didn't need to do a standing ovation like caps fans did because they were already standing up but yeah the the cheers were loud and unmistakable they have a lot of respect for for the man and i think they put that on display tonight one more for you sean how many goals you think this guy's going to score obviously pretty ridiculous that he's still scoring at this rate at this age can he can he can make it to can he make it to 50? I think that's the question. He's going to have five more games left, and he's been scoring at a 55 goal or a 56 goal pace all season. Obviously, he had the 18

games in the middle where he broke his leg, which is still kind of crazy to say. But he's been great. And we can't put anything past him. The fact that he made it in time after that little 17 game break in November and December, it's a testament to how, not just how great he is, but how great he's currently playing. right, scoring at a 51 goal pace since he came back, which is crazy. So I don't think it's impossible. He's a whatever. And he's already close enough to the 50 goal mark.

I think if we want to have some fun and really carry over the chase vibe, we can turn our attention to that. It's possible. Can't point anything past him. All right. And any other final thoughts? You've been following this chase for a while. I feel like you've got a different perspective than most.

Yeah, just more generally. This is one of the coolest things I've come. covered in my career. I picked up the chase in Raleigh and followed it to Washington and followed it to D.C. I thought I was going to be on the beat, so to speak, a little bit longer, but it's been a blast. And I think that became a big part of the story, too. It's not just about how great Oveson's career has been. That's certainly one element of it. But the way he broke it with his finishing kick and with this, you know, flourish and this flourish and this flurry that we've seen over the last couple weeks, man. That just adds to the legend. He's

The goat for a reason. He's better at scoring goals than anybody else in the history of the National Hockey League. He's better at celebrating than anybody else in the history of the national hockey league. He's got a nose for drama. And we've seen all of that. So, yeah, it's been a treat. And now it's over.

Awesome. Thanks so much to Sean Gentile, who's there. You can read all of his coverage from the game. And I'm sure we're going to have a bunch of other stories up on Theathletic.com. We've been covering this thing for the whole chase. And I'm sure we've got a bunch of good stuff coming out. Thanks to Sean McIndoo for jumping on here with me. And thanks for listening to this special edition of The Athletic Hockey Show on a historic Sunday in the NHL.

Max Boltman, Mark Lazarus, along with Dan Robson, and I have the next Athletic Hockey Show on Monday.