Records are meant to be broken. Nothing remains static forever, and we get a chance to witness history getting reshaped every passing day! Wayne Gretzky was that kind of once-in-a-lifetime player who broke barriers and set the bar higher than ever. One of his accomplishments is those 894 career goals of his, keeping him standing tall for decades. It’s monumental, isn’t it? What looked unachievable, once upon a time, now has become a cakewalk for Alex Ovechkin.
The 39-year-old Ovechkin, as we all know, has been in quite the vociferous chase to break the grand Gretzky record. And now he is almost within touching distance of goal number 895, with only 8 goals to go. But if you think the numbers are weighing heavily on Ovi’s mind, then you have guessed wrong. On Monday he said, “You’re just focusing on different things. Tomorrow it’s a new day. We’re going to play against a good team fighting for the playoffs, so we concentrate on that,” referring to the Capitals’ upcoming game against the Detroit Wings.
But while Ovechkin is unbothered, the world of hockey continues to remain in shock and awe at this incredible feat Ovechkin is so close to accomplishing. Almost as if to counter his blase attitude, his former teammate and close friend Evgeny Kuznetsov was cranking up the hype. As reported by the Russian news outlet Match TV, Kuznetsov jokingly stated that he expects Ovi to score all 8 goals in his very next game! “I think this season. In the next game, Ovechkin will score eight goals (laughs),” he said lightheartedly (machine translated from Russian to English).
Well, this is Alex Ovechkin after all—capable of all things impossible! In fact, Kuznetsov has long since backed his friend to achieve his goal this season. Last August, he said, as reported by Russian Machine Never Breaks, “I hope [he breaks the record this season]. So that he won’t suffer anymore next year.”
Now the Caps have just returned from a 4-game romp along the West Coast, recording 3 wins. While Ovechkin left the first 3 games empty-handed, he finally opened his account and scored goal number 887 in the Capitals’ blowout 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. Now with the Caps finally back home for a 3-game stretch, the anticipation to see him break the record has reached a fever pitch.
With Alex Ovechkin’s ‘Gr8′ chase, Capitals’ revenue skyrockets
Alex Ovechkin, as he draws close to Gretzky’s mark, has brought significant financial gains to the Washington Capitals as well. He can do it all, clearly! The team’s finances are getting a boost from various streams, and it’s a given that the game where Ovechkin surpasses the record will see a true opening of the floodgates.
Ticket prices have doubled, as per the Washington Times. In fact, analysts have revealed that tickets to watch Ovechkin could become the most expensive ones in NHL history! That’s another record-breaking epic we could watch, thanks to Alex Ovechkin. Kyle Zorn, head of content at TickPick, says, “I imagine the cheapest ticket, when it becomes obvious that he’ll have the opportunity to break the record, will be in the $450-500 range, though it could exceed that into $700 or $800.” Insane numbers for what will be a regular season game! Once the record has been broken, it will be interesting to compare ticket prices to those from this year’s Stanley Cup finals.
But that’s not all; Capitals’ sponsors are enjoying the benefits. “Every business metric that we have is really ballooning to the top,” said Jim van Stone, chief commercial officer of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company for the Capitals. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment in the NHL, and you can bet that every involved party will be making the most of it.
The fans are excited, fellow players are excited, and so are the commercial bigwigs. The Alex Ovechkin goalscoring subplot of this season’s NHL has been nothing short of riveting, and we just may get to see it conclude before the playoffs. The question is, just how big a spectacle will it turn out to be? If the hype is anything to go by, it’ll be like nothing we’ve seen in recent memory.
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