Putin Calls N.H.L. Star's Record-Setting Goal a Reason for Russia to Celebrate
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia congratulated the hockey player Alex Ovechkin on Monday for breaking the N.H.L.'s goal-scoring record.
Mr. Ovechkin, 39, captain of the Washington Capitals, scored his 895th career goal on Sunday evening in a game against the New York Islanders. That broke a record set by Wayne Gretzky that had stood for 26 years.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Putin praised Mr. Ovechkin, who started out as a professional hockey player in Moscow, for the 'momentous achievement' that he called 'a genuine cause for celebration for fans in Russia and beyond.'
The sports feat — and the comments from the Kremlin — have put a fresh spotlight on Mr. Ovechkin's past support for Mr. Putin and on the hockey star's stance on the war in Ukraine.
Mr. Ovechkin, who has played for the Washington Capitals since 2005, has lived in the United States for the past two decades. But his Instagram profile photo shows him with Mr. Putin, and in 2017, he started a social media movement called #PutinTeam, months before Russia's elections.
The hockey star also raised eyebrows in 2022 when he failed to issue an outright condemnation of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When asked about it at a news conference, Mr. Ovechkin said, 'Please, no more war.' In response to a question about whether he still supported Mr. Putin, Mr. Ovechkin said, 'He's my president,' but added, 'I am not in politics. I'm an athlete.'
In his postgame remarks on Sunday, Mr. Ovechkin celebrated the achievement with a flurry of gratitude for his fellow players — and said, 'Russia, we did it!'
On Monday, Russian state television celebrated the athlete as 'our pride, a Russian hockey player who made history,' drawing 'admiration on both sides of the Atlantic.'
Pro-Putin pundits were quick to seize on Mr. Ovechkin's achievements after the record-setting goal.
'Ovechkin has showed many times he is not afraid and not ashamed of being Russian, even when Russians have been bullied for being Russian,' Sergei Markov, a political scientist with links to the Kremlin, wrote on social media. 'This is another thing that everyone in Russia is grateful to Ovechkin for, as well as the respect he has won in the world — not just for the hockey.'
Mr. Ovechkin has not competed for Russia internationally since 2019, and the Russian national team has been banned from global competitions by the International Ice Hockey Federation since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war has been a contentious issue in international sports, with Russian athletes coming under pressure to condemn the war.
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