From his first NHL goal to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record, witness the most spectacular plays from the greatest goal-scorer in hockey history. Watch as we showcase the Russian superstar’s most memorable moments, including “The Goal,” Stanley Cup heroics, and milestone markers that changed the sport forever. Our countdown features incredible displays of skill against the Rangers at MSG, clutch playoff performances versus the Penguins, highlight-reel goals against the Devils, and the iconic falling goal against the Coyotes. Which amazing Ovechkin goal is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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#Hockey #NHL #Ovechkin #Capitals #Goals #Sports #StanleyCup #Gretzky
45 Comments
Which amazing Ovechkin goal is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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Please do a, "Top 20 Series and Franchises You Forgot Had Their Own Fast Food Toy", as a video or community tab poll option
Example: Hamtaro Burger King Toys
Oh the foreshadowing on #1. None of us knew at that time. Congrats Ovi!
The greatest 🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺
I was at the 895 game
Love you guys for paying this respect. OVIE is awesome.
Kuznetsov scored the winning goal in OT to out the Pens. Not Ovie…
Hello good afternoon ❤❤❤
1:45 hello?? 😂😂😂
So glad he took the record from that racist MAGA P.O.S.!
Ove truly deserves at least another Stanley cup before he retires.
Not a hockey fan, but good list. 🎉
It is awesome that his two most iconic goals were scored in front of Wayne Gretzky.
#2 still blows me away. i remember watching that on wednesday night hockey on TSN. ive always loved ovechkin over crosby, both have done so much for the game but ovi was always my favourite when it comes to the two of them. the fact that he did it, in todays league, with the same number of games as the great one speaks volumes to how much of an athlete and a gamer he really is. Congrats Ovi, well deserved.
Congratulations Ovi
Путлеровский дружбан
😡🤮
who fucking wrote this script….
putlers coclsleeve
Alley hoop? 😭
On top of a great feat, same team throughout his career.
I love Ovechkin!
Congratulations Alexander Ovechkin
Ovi Ovi Ovi
They were gonna do his Top 10 assists, but I'm not sure he has 10 assists in his career.
Anyone else notice the two 5-second quiet times 🤔 at 1:45 to 1:50 and 2:03 to 2:08??
Cool video
congrats ovi on the record that was once thought almost impossible to break. it only took 25 years for it to fall. however one record that probably will stand for a VERY long time if not surpassed in the nhl is gretzkys all time points record of 2,857. an insane fact: if gretzky had never scored a goal in his career, he would still be the all time nhl points leader and ill add that the fastest player to 1,000 points is gretzky and the second fastest player to 1,000 points? gretzky on his next 1,000 points. he was a special player
Good list thanks WatchMojo 👏
Underrated and lesser known Ovechkin fact: On his very first NHL shift he hit a guy so hard he broke the glass.
Go caps! Let’s go ovi! I’m proud of you brother you did the impossible! 🫶🫶♥️
YEAH OVI!!!
Nice going WatchMojo, you are praising a Putin supporter and in effect you support the war against Ukraine
You people are disgusting
I was there
You deserve it, Ovi!
I do appreciate your coverage of hockey. Really, thank you.
Pronunciations were questionable, but enough.
did not know id be seeing watch mojo talk about my favorite hockey team
Damn, #1 was just the start of his famous one-timer snap shot
8:21 Nice ad placement right there
That 2006 goal, in my opinion, will always be THE GOAL of Ovie’s career.
Screw the putins bootlicker. Get out of NHL!
I'm… positively surprised there are no uber trolls telling Ovi to go away in this thread.
Please let it stay that way.
So many goals that were left off. Passing Jagr to become the all time non North American goal scorer, 500, etc. giving 895 an “honorable mention” is brutal as well.
I’ll never forget his rookie season! I was in middle school. He became one of my favorite players.
It's amazing that the NHL has been held since 1917, and its best sniper is a Russian, and Russians play in the NHL only 6.7% of the total number, and the first Russian began playing in the NHL in 1988. But to become the best sniper, you have to play for a long time, for example, Ovechkin played 20 seasons. Many Russians did not play in the NHL for so long, since they played part of their careers in Russia.
It is strange that in all this time, there was not a single Canadian who would top the list of the best snipers in the NHL. In the Canadian-American championship, the best sniper is not a Canadian, not an American, but a Russian!
Apparently, the Soviet school of hockey and the genes of the ancestors have an effect.
The second sniper of the NHL Gretzky grandfather and grandmother were from the Russian Empire.
Ovechkin scored goals in the NHL, which featured most of the world's best players, and Gretzky scored most of his goals when most of the world's best players played in the USSR. Below are statistics in which the USSR national team won the overall victory over the Canadians.
The USSR national team scored a total of 42 victories, suffered 16 defeats and drew 10 games with the Canadian national team at the World Championships, Olympic Games, Canada Cup and Super Series.
The super series of matches between the national teams of the USSR and the NHL, as well as between Soviet clubs and the clubs of the NHL and the WHA ended with the following total result: 96 wins, 63 losses and 16 draws in favor of the USSR.
Some statistics:
Number of championships in which the player became the best sniper in the sum of the Olympic Games, World Championships, NHL, Interethnic Hockey League, USSR, CIS and Russia Championships, continental hockey league (Olympic Games/ World Championships / League):
1). Alexander Ovechkin (Russia) – 9 (0/0/9)
2). Bobby Hull (Canada) – 7 (0/0/7)
3). Vsevolod Bobrov (USSR) – 6 (1/1/4)
4). Phil Esposito (Canada) – 6 (0/0/6)
5). Anatoly Firsov (USSR) – 5 (1/3/1)
6). Teemu Selanne (Finland) – 5 (1/1/3)
7). Boris Mikhailov (USSR) – 5 (0/2/3)
8). Sergey Mozyakin (Russia) – 5 (0/0/5)
9). Wayne Gretzky (Canada) – 5 (0/0/5)
10). Gordie Howe (Canada) – 5 (0/0/5)
11). Maurice Richard (Canada) – 5 (0/0/5)
12). Charlie Conacher (Canada) – 5 (0/0/5)
13). Pavel Bure (Russia) – 4 (1/0/3)
14). Vyacheslav Starshinov (USSR) – 4 (0/2/2)
15). Sergey Makarov (USSR) – 4 (0/2/2)
16). Vladimir Krutov (USSR) – 4 (0/1/3)
17). Alexey Guryshev (USSR) – 4 (0/0/4)
18). Andrey Khomutov (USSR/Russia) – 3 (1/1/1)
19). Jerome Iginla (Canada) – 3 (1/0/2)
20). Josef Malechek (Czechoslovakia) – 3 (0/3/0)
21). Vladimir Petrov (USSR) – 3 (0/1/2)
22). Sidney Crosby (Canada) – 3 (0/1/2)
23). Ilya Kovalchuk (Russia) – 3 (0/1/2)
24). Peter Bondra (Slovakia) – 3 (0/1/2)
25). Alexander Yakushev (USSR) – 3 (0/0/3)
26). Helmut Balderis (USSR) – 3 (0/0/3)
27). Mario Lemieux (Canada) – 3 (0/0/3)
28). Brett Hull (USA) – 3 (0/0/3)
29). Bill Cook (Canada) – 3 (0/0/3)
30). Babe Dye (Canada) – 3 (0/0/3)
Number of tournaments (in total, the USSR Championship, Stanley Cup, World Championship and Olympic Games) in which the player became the top scorer:
1). Sergey Makarov (USSR) – 12
2). Wayne Gretzky (Canada) – 11
3). Vladimir Petrov (USSR) – 8
4). Gordie Howe – 6 (Canada)
5). Mario Lemieux (Canada) – 6
6). Anatoly Firsov (USSR) – 5
7). Jaromir Jagr (Czech Republic) – 5
8). Phil Esposito (Canada) – 5
9). Connor McDavid (Canada) – 5
10). Vsevolod Bobrov (USSR) – 4
11). Alexey Guryshev (USSR) – 4
12). Stan Mikita (Canada) – 4
13). Mats Sundin (Sweden) – 3
14). Alexander Maltsev (USSR) – 3
15). Sidney Crosby (Canada) – 3
16). Evgeni Malkin (Russia) – 3
17). Guy Lafleur (Canada) – 3
18). Bobby Hull (Canada) – 3
The most titled hockey players who have won the tournament (In total, the USSR Championship, Stanley Cup, World Championship and Olympic Games:), by the number of times:
1). Vladislav Tretiak – 26
2). Vyacheslav Fetisov – 25
3). Sergey Makarov – 23
4). Vladimir Petrov – 22
5). Victor Kuzkin – 22
6). Valery Kharlamov – 21
7). Boris Mikhailov – 20
8). Alexander Ragulin – 20
9). Volodymyr Lutchenko – 20
10). Vladimir Vikulov – 20
11). Andrey Khomutov – 19
12). Anatoly Firsov – 18
13). Alexey Kasatonov – 18
14). Vladimir Krutov – 17
15). Igor Larionov – 16
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. The final six were announced on May 17, 2008 in Quebec at a gala evening dedicated to the centenary of the IIHF.
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
Most of the best hockey players of the 20th century played in the USSR.
As can be seen from the statistics, game results and voting, most of the best and most titled hockey players played in the USSR. But starting in 1989, hockey players from the USSR began to join the ranks of NHL teams. In the 1988-1989 season, 1 skater from the former USSR played in the regular season of the NHL, after the collapse of the USSR in the 1991-1992 season, 24 skaters played, in the 1993-1994 season – 63, and in 2003/04 – 71.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, hockey players from Eastern Europe got a chance to play in the NHL.
In 1989, the number of Europeans in the NHL exceeded 10% for the first time (12% in the 1989/90 season).
In 1995, the number of European players in the NHL exceeded 20% (21% in the 1995/96 season).
In 2000, a record number of Europeans (123) were selected in the NHL draft (42% of the total number of draftees).
In the first post-lockout season of 2005/2006, 263 Europeans played in the NHL (27.03% of the total number of players).
Ovechkin played in the NHL with higher competition than Gretzky. But you can compare the results of these players, at the time when Soviet players began to play in the NHL.
Gretzky played 373 games in the NHL from 1993 to 1998 and scored 120 goals (an average of 0.32 goals per game) at the age of 32-36. Ovechkin, ages 32-36 (2017-2022), played 353 NHL games and scored 222 goals (0.63 goals per game on average).
Gretzky, ages 27-36, played 721 NHL games and scored 302 goals (0.42 goals per game on average) from 1988-98. Ovechkin, ages 27-36 (2012-2022), played 721 NHL games and scored 441 goals (0.61 goals per game on average).
Ovechkin has won the most goals scored over these periods.
Ovechkin has also won the most seasons in which they have led the league in scoring.
Wayne Gretzky has never been a top scorer since 1991, when after the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, European players flooded into the NHL (the number of Europeans in the NHL increased more than 5 times), and the competition in the NHL itself increased! And Gretzky's scoring rate dropped noticeably. Wayne Gretzky himself said in an interview that it is harder to score now than it was during his playing days (I quote him: "scoring 13 goals now – and this is just my opinion – is much harder than scoring 15 goals, like I did in '93.", "I don't want to offend the guys from the 80s and 90s. They were the best in their time. Trottier, Messier, Lafleur and so on. They were great athletes. But now the game has become faster, it requires even more strength. When I first saw Zdeno Chara on the ice with the Islanders, I said to myself: "My God, when he's on the ice, I should be on the bench. And every time he came out on my shifts, I ran to change." Now two-meter players move well, they can do a lot of things that were unimaginable
before.").
Therefore, no one could come close to Gretzky's eternal record.
The fact that after the collapse of the USSR, most of the best players began to play in the NHL is shown by the following statistics. The ratio of players from different leagues at the 2014 Sochi Olympics:
1 . NHL – 50.67%
2 . KHL/VHL – 17.00%
3 . Switzerland – 7%
4 . Austria – 6%
5 . Sweden – 5.33%
6 . Germany – 3.33%
7 . Norway – 2.67%
8 . Slovakia – 2.33%
9 . Czech Republic – 2%
10 . Finland – 1.33%
11 . France – 1.33%
12 . Kazakhstan – 0.33%
13 . Denmark – 0.33%
14 . Italy – 0.33%
The ratio of players from different leagues at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, excluding players who play in their national championships:
1 . NHL – 52.58%
2 . KHL – 21.65%
3 . Sweden – 7.73%
4 . Germany – 5.15%
5 . Slovakia – 3.09%
6 . Switzerland – 2.58%
7 . France – 2.06%
8 . Czech Republic – 1.55%
9 . Finland – 1.03%
10 . Austria – 1.03%
11 . Kazakhstan – 0.52%
12 . Denmark – 0.52%
13 . Italy – 0.52%
14 . Norway – 0.00%
Since the collapse of the USSR, when Soviet hockey players began playing in the NHL, Russians have generally become the best snipers in the NHL most often.
Let's count how many times hockey players from different countries became the best snipers in the regular NHL championships after the collapse of the USSR, starting with the 1992/1993 season (the first full season after the collapse of the USSR):
Russia – 14
Canada – 10
USA – 4
Finland – 3
Czech Republic – 2
Slovakia – 2
Also in the top three highest paid NHL players throughout their careers are two Russians: Ovechkin and Malkin.
Before the collapse of the USSR, Soviet hockey players dominated world hockey, and after the collapse they went to play in the NHL and now dominate it, scoring more goals than others and earning more money than others, despite the fact that they are a minority there.
Russian and Soviet hockey players took most of the titles and records!