Latest news with #AlexOvechkin
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Nicklas Backstrom, who elevated the Caps and their captain, to play in Sweden
Nicklas Backstrom has never been one for fanfare. At the peak of Backstrom's powers as one of the best playmakers in the NHL, his brash Washington Capitals running mate, Alex Ovechkin, usually grabbed the lion's share of the spotlight, which suited the more reserved Swede just fine. When Backstrom played his final NHL game, no one knew it was the last. It was the eighth game of the 2023-24 season and the 1,105th of Backstrom's career, a no-frills late October win over the San Jose Sharks. Three days later, Backstrom announced that as a result of his 'ongoing injury situation,' most notably the hip issues he had for years, he would be stepping away from hockey.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ovechkin Rooting For Kuznetsov As Ex-Capitals Center Attempts NHL Comeback
As ex-Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov attempts an NHL comeback this coming season, he has a handful of supporters, including Alex Ovechkin.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Sport
- Forbes
Alex Ovechkin, Other Stars Chase NHL Milestones In 2025-26 Season
Alex Ovechkin celebrates after setting a new all-time record for NHL goals on April 6, 2025. (Photo ... More by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Last April, Alex Ovechkin made history when he surpassed Wayne Gretzky with 895 NHL goals. But that's not the end of the story. Turning 40 in September, Ovechkin has more NHL milestones in sight in the 2025-26 season. The celebrations for those markers won't be as dramatic as the one we saw at UBS Arena on Apr. 6. But Ovechkin is just three goals away from becoming the first NHL player ever to score 900. He's nine games away from hitting 1,500. And he's 47 points away from passing Marcel Dionne to move into the top 10 all-time in total points combined in the regular season and playoffs. Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux on opening night of the 2005-06 season (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty ... More Images) In that category, he's second among active players behind his long-time rival, Sidney Crosby. Now at 1,888 combined regular-season and playoff points, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain is eight points away from passing his former teammate, landlord and current Penguins minority owner Mario Lemieux to move into seventh-place all-time and first in Pittsburgh franchise history. With 1,687 regular-season points and counting, Crosby is also 37 points away from passing Lemieux to move into eighth-place all-time in that category. Lemieux should maintain a firm grip on the Penguins' all-time goals record for at least one more season. At 690, he's 65 goals ahead of Crosby's 625 in that category. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Here's what to watch in 2025-26 in some of the NHL's other key statistical categories: NHL Milestones: Games Played Officially, Ryan Suter is the NHL's active leader in games played at 1,526, which ranks him 19th all-time. The 40-year-old defender has 20 years under his belt and hasn't missed a regular-season game since the 2017-18 season. But Suter was scratched for two of the St. Louis Blues' first-round playoff games against the Winnipeg Jets last spring, and remains without a contract for the new season. If Suter doesn't return, Brent Burns will become the league's longest-tenured player as he joins his fourth team, the Colorado Avalanche, for his 22nd NHL season. Burns is three games away from 1,500, when he'll pass Mike Modano to move into 23rd place all time. And as the league's reigning consecutive-games leader at 925 games, Burns could also succeed Phil Kessel as the second player ever to reach 1,000. He'll pass Keith Yandle to move into second place all-time in that category if he gets to 990 consecutive games this season. Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar is also set to reach 1,500 games in 2025-26. He's currently at 1,454. Kopitar's new teammate, Corey Perry is now eight games away from 1,400 and Crosby is 48 games away, while Jamie Benn (1,192) and John Tavares (1,184) are closing in on 1,200. The 1,000-game threshold is always a cause for celebration. Players who should hit that milestone this season include Adam Henrique (993), Tyler Seguin (989), Nazem Kadri (985), Roman Josi (962) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (959) — who's set to be the first player from his 2011 draft class to reach the mark. NHL Milestones: Goals Look for Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers and Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars to score their 400th career goals early in the new season: they're both currently at 399. In Boston, David Pastrnak sits at 391, tracking to easily eclipse 400 before he turns 30 next May. Connor McDavid should do the same. He turns 29 in January and currently has 361 goals, 39 away from 400. Meanwhile, John Tavares (494) and Patrick Kane (492) are closing in on 500 goals and Steven Stamkos (582) needs 18 to get to 600. He's third among active players, behind only Ovechkin and Crosby. NHL Milestones: Points After becoming the fourth-fastest player to hit 1,000 career points last November, McDavid should crack 1,100 early in 2025-26. He ended last season at 1,082. Ahead of him, Crosby needs 13 points to reach 1,700 while his teammate Evgeni Malkin needs 54 to get to 1,400. Kopitar also is 22 points away from 1,300 while Stamkos is 10 away from 1,200. Closing in on the 1,000-point plateau, 2024-25 scoring champion Nikita Kucherov is now at 994. New Florida Panther and two-time Stanley Cup champ Brad Marchand sits at 980 points, and Draisaitl and Benn are both at 956. NHL Milestones: Goaltending With the retirement of Marc-Andre Fleury, two goalies now stand well above the rest in the key categories among active goaltenders. Jonathan Quick moves into first place as the NHL's active games-played leader at 804 games. Another two-time Cup winner, Sergei Bobrovsky, is second at 754 games but has the upper-hand in the win column: Bobrovsky has 429 victories compared to 404 for Quick. The quest for new NHL milestones will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 7, when the 2025-26 season kicks off with the Florida Panthers raising their second Stanley Cup banner at Amerant Bank Arena before hosting the Chicago Blackhawks.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Getting a new CBA without a lockout is bad, actually: The Contrarian returns
It's late July, we're two months away from games that matter, and NHL GMs have apparently taken the rest of the summer off. Let's get Contrarian. This is the feature where you send in your most obvious takes, and I tell you that you're wrong, whether I believe it or not. In the past, we've made the case that Mark Messier was a great Canuck, Ray Bourque's Cup win was bad, but Brett Hull's crease goal was good and Bobby Orr's flying goal photo is overrated. Last time, we made the case for Alex Ovechkin being an overrated bum, and also for Alex Ovechkin being an underrated legend, because we're flexible like that. Advertisement This time, we've got a new CBA, an old legend and everything in between. Let's dive in. Note: Submissions have been edited for clarity and style. The NHL and NHLPA agreeing on a new CBA quickly and without any work-stoppage drama is a good thing. — Kevin S. On the contrary, Kevin S., you twit. Unless, of course, you're an owner. Are you an owner, Kevin? Are you? Because if not, you should be concerned about what we just saw play out. We had the two sides of this multibillion-dollar industry come together, and the result was a one-sided victory for the owners, one that appeared to come with next to no resistance from the players. Sure, they got a few minor concessions in the form of payroll taxes and an increased playoff fund. But in today's NHL, those 'wins' represent pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, the owners got more games, shorter contracts and smaller bonuses. And they'll keep all the coming expansion money, a multibillion-dollar windfall that the players didn't even seem to try to get a piece of. And sure, you can see why it played out that way. After all, this is Gary Bettman's NHL, where history shows us how these things usually go. If the players try to stand up for themselves, even a little, Bettman shuts everything down. Sometimes the players win, sometimes they lose, and sometimes nobody's even sure, but it always comes with a cost in a league where careers are short. When it comes to work stoppages, Bettman isn't bluffing. He's proven that over the years. So why even try? The position was summed up perfectly by a player quoted in this excellent piece. 'What can we do? There can't be another lockout,' the player said. 'Those don't go our way. It's better to get it done.' 'What can we do?' indeed. That's rational, on some level. But it's not healthy. And it's not fair to the players, who are the reason we watch this league. Nobody thinks that Marty Walsh should have come in with guns blazing, trying to recreate the animosity of the Bob Goodenow era. But if this were a hockey fight, it sure looks like the owners wiggled their gloves and the players immediately turtled. Advertisement After three decades of Bettman's 'shut it down' approach, we now have labor peace. But that peace apparently just means the players roll over without any sign of a fight, while the owners tilt the ice even further at every opportunity. That's good news for fans who just wanted to watch hockey without hearing from the accountants and mediators. But it's not a good thing for the game. The 4 Nations Face-Off was an overwhelming success for the NHL. — James On the contrary, James, you clodpoll. Was it fun? Of course. Did it blow away expectations? I'd say so. Did the best team win? Indisputably. But that last bit is the problem. You're talking about what's best for the NHL. And when it comes to best-on-best tournaments, here's what's best for the NHL: Team USA finally winning one of these things. That's it. That's what needs to happen. If you could hook Bettman and friends and up to lie detectors, they'd tell you that's the whole point. From the league's perspective, shutting down a season for a best-on-best showdown is ultimately a marketing exercise. And when it comes to marketing this sport in the USA, only one result moves the needle. And Team Canada winning — again, like they always do — isn't it. Short of a Team USA win, this year's tournament delivered everything you could ask for, including a signature moment: The infamous Nine Seconds from the round robin, the rare hockey game that seemed to take over the sports discourse for days. Fans of other sports were hooked because what they were watching didn't look anything like the leagues they were used to. Unfortunately, it didn't look much like the modern NHL either, meaning that wild night in Montreal couldn't draw in new fans on its own. The tournament needed the right outcome, and it didn't get it. American sports fans will dip in to sample best-on-best hockey, as the record ratings for the 4 Nations final show. But they want to see a happy ending. They didn't get it this year, just like they didn't in 2002 or 2010 or any other year beyond 1996, which is too long ago to matter. And that's why they don't stick around. Less than four months later, we got a Stanley Cup Final featuring a rematch between Connor McDavid, who scored the OT winner, and Matthew Tkachuk, who worked hard to make himself the face of Team USA. Nobody watched. Advertisement (Well, they watched in Canada, as they always do. But the NHL has been clear over the years: When it comes to Canada, the only priority is to cash as big a check as possible from Sportsnet every decade or so. Beyond that, they couldn't care less.) The bottom line: There's a reason that the typical American sports fan still thinks a round-robin upset from 1980 is the most important hockey game ever played. Until a Team USA can deliver that sort of moment again, nothing is going to be a 'success' for the NHL, in any way that matters to league leadership. American players can keep kicking the can down the road, always telling us that the next tournament is the one that matters. But eventually, they're going to need to do more than talk a good game. The decentralized draft was awful, and the GMs of this league proved their incompetence by voting for its return. — Jackson S. On the contrary, Jackson, you dumbbell. I mean, you're right about the first part — the decentralized draft that we all watched a few weeks ago was, indeed, awful. I wrote that at the time, and not many of you disagreed. But was it awful because it was a decentralized draft? Or was it awful because it was the first decentralized draft (of the modern era, that wasn't forced on us by a pandemic)? Or did the NHL just try a few things that didn't work, in a way they can learn from and fix for next year's edition? The answer is we don't know. But we'll find out, because they're doing it again next year. That's upset some fans, especially the kind of whiny babies who never like anything. But the reality is that we had decades of centralized drafts and one year of the alternative. We can't know if the new way can work. All we know is that it didn't, once. The league deserves a chance to ditch the cringey Zoom interviews, figure out a way to speed things along and try again. If that one stinks, then fine, attack the GMs if they insist on sticking with it. Just not yet. Comment sections are trash. — Paul W. On the contrary, Paul, you (tries to think of the most insulting label possible), commenter. Comment sections can be great … sometimes. If I had to guess, I'd bet that 90 percent of the commenters on a typical post of mine are pretty cool, even if they don't agree with what they've just read. Of course, that number can get a lot higher depending on whose post it is and what the subject matter might be. I generally get to play on easy mode, because how fired up can you really get over stuff like this? I've seen some really interesting discussions break out in my comment sections, not to mention having some really neat suggestions for future posts. Advertisement But it doesn't take much to ruin the vibe, even if 90 percent of people are cool — nobody's fine with 10 percent turd content in their punchbowl. And yeah, some of you are just weird. That includes the garden variety trolls and those who've made a permanent state of grievance into their whole personality. It also includes some sports- and hockey-specific types, like the super-homers, or the 'slow news day?' slugs, or the Leaf-pilled anti-fans who make everything about one team and then complain about it, or the single-issue obsessives, or the stick-to-sports losers, or Bruins fans. It is what it is. So what can you do? Not much, unfortunately. You can ignore the troll, upvote the first guy telling them they're an idiot, and then move on. (Piling on in the same thread just makes it look like that comment is the most important one on the piece.) Other than that, just be cool, remind yourself that we're talking about a game here, and remember that sometimes it's OK to just not post anything. That story about the Oilers learning how to win from the Islanders in 1983 is one of hockey's best. — Sean M. On the contrary, Sean, you … wait, this is me. I'm submitting my own questions. That's kind of pathetic, but in my defense, I basically asked you guys to send this one in a few weeks ago and nobody took the bait. So yeah, on the contrary, Sean, you absolute beauty. The Oilers/Islanders story is bad, and we need to stop bringing it up every year at playoff time. If you've somehow missed it, the story goes like this: It's 1983 and the upstart young Oilers are facing the Islanders in the Stanley Cup Final. They're the better team, in terms of regular-season record, and have all the pieces in place. But the Islanders are a dynasty, having won three straight Cups. Sure enough, the Isles sweep the series. After the deciding game, various Oilers players (including Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in most tellings) walk by New York's dressing room, expecting to see a raucous celebration. Instead, they see a bunch of beaten-up players with ice packs, barely celebrating at all because of how much they've left on the ice. At that moment, the Oilers finally understand what it takes to be a winner, and they go on to beat those same Islanders one year later for the first of five Cups in seven years. Here's Gretzky himself spinning the tale: It's an awesome story. You can see why fans love it. It's also completely fake. I mean, come on. Let's use some common sense. We're supposed to believe that the Islanders have just won the Stanley Cup, and they're all sitting in their locker room with the door open for some reason. Nobody's celebrating. Nobody's happy. They're just all strapping ice packs to their broken limbs or whatever, not even so much as cracking a beer, even though just a few minutes earlier they looked like this. Advertisement You're buying that? Really? Because if so, I'm inviting you over to play the new Super Mario that I got from my uncle, who works at Nintendo. Now, does this mean I'm calling Gretzky a liar? Not necessarily. He's not a historian, he's a storyteller, and he's going back 40-plus years for this one. He's not making things up out of nothing. I don't doubt that he may have walked past that room, and maybe things weren't as boisterous as he expected. He's just exaggerating, being dramatic and shaping a story over the decades in a way that plays best. But what he's describing didn't happen that way. And if you don't believe me, why not ask somebody who was there: Islanders' legend Bryan Trottier. He was on a podcast a few months ago and mentioned the legend of the quiet dressing room. He says it's not true, or at least not accurate, the way Gretzky tells it. 'That's not the way we remember it,' he says. Instead, he says that somebody told the Islanders players when the Oilers were on their way past the room, so they quieted down the ongoing celebration out of respect for their opponent, not wanting to seem like they were rubbing it in. But they were celebrating. Of course they were. They'd just won the Stanley Cup! That version makes sense, and squares with where Gretzky (and others) got this idea in the first place. But over the years, it's morphed into the Islanders' post-Cup room being a morgue. That's not true, it was never true, and it's not a good lesson about how to win. When you achieve a lifelong dream, you absolutely should celebrate. And the Islanders did. You know who else did? The Oilers! If the story had really played out the way the modern version does, and was so instrumental to Edmonton learning how to win, shouldn't their celebrations have been muted? Instead, this is the team that invented the Cup handoffs and team photos and maybe did some other things. Does that sound like a team that had learned that the key to winning was being too beat up to be happy about it? No, because that never happened. Let's stop pretending it did. If you'd like to submit a take for future editions of The Contrarian, you can do that here. (Photo of Islanders' Bryan Trottier hoisting the Stanley Cup in 1983: Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios / Getty Images)
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Despite Alex Ovechkin and Brad Marchand in spotlight, NHL faces major scoring drop and viewership crash in 2024-25
NHL's 2024-25 season fell short on goals and viewers (Image via: Getty Images) The 2024-25 NHL season delivered big moments from Alex Ovechkin's chase for Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record to Brad Marchand's dramatic shift to the Florida Panthers after 16 years with the Boston Bruins. Yet, while stars were shining, the league's deeper numbers told a more troubling story. 2024-25 NHL season sees significant decline in goal scoring For a league that has worked hard to move past the low-scoring 'Dead Puck Era,' the latest stats raise alarms. Only 7,978 goals were scored league-wide this season—down from 8,168 in 2024 and 8,343 in 2023. Powerplay opportunities also dropped sharply, with 816 fewer powerplays than in 2024 and nearly 1,000 fewer than in 2023. Naturally, this has impacted scoring, especially in 5-on-5 situations where goals have noticeably dipped. The number of elite point producers also declined. In 2023, 11 players hit the 100-point mark; in 2025, only six reached that milestone. The 90+ point club also shrunk from 19 players in 2023 to just 12 this past season. These numbers suggest a significant drop in offensive output across the league. FREEFALL: NHL Playoff Viewership CRASHES 27% While NBA Ratings SOAR, Hockey MISSED A Golden Chance! How back-to-back games and fewer penalties are hurting NHL scoring One major factor cited by analysts like Jason Gregor is the performance of teams in the second half of back-to-back games. Western Conference teams had just a .401 win percentage in those situations, compared to .434 for Eastern Conference clubs. Seattle Kraken stood out, losing all 12 of their second-half back-to-back matchups. Less rest, more travel, and fewer penalties being called may have all contributed to slower play and lower scoring. The lack of enforcement on infractions has arguably taken away many of the powerplay chances that fuel goal production. FAQs Why did NHL scoring drop in the 2024-25 season? NHL scoring declined due to a combination of factors, including fewer powerplay opportunities, tired teams in back-to-back games, and less aggressive officiating. These changes reduced high-scoring chances and affected overall offensive output. Which teams were most affected by the scoring slump? Teams like the Seattle Kraken struggled significantly, especially in the second game of back-to-backs. Only 11 teams finished with a .500 or better record in those matchups, showing a league-wide trend of fatigue and lower scoring. How bad was the NHL's viewership decline in 2024-25? TV ratings dropped noticeably, even for marquee matchups. A key example was the Capitals vs. Hurricanes game in April, which averaged just 186,000 viewers despite Alex Ovechkin's historic chase. NHL suffers significant TV viewership decline during 2024-25 season Perhaps even more concerning than the on-ice stats is the dip in fan engagement. Major markets like Chicago and New York saw local TV ratings fall, despite strong narratives like Ovechkin's historic pursuit. A much-anticipated Washington vs. Carolina game in April drew just 186,000 average viewers on TNT and truTV—well below expectations for a high-profile matchup. Also Read: TJ Oshie puts $9.85M D.C. home up for sale, fueling retirement uncertainty and Capitals exit rumors There were some bright spots—teams like the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks saw improved viewership—but overall, the league struggled to keep fans watching. As the NHL looks ahead to 2025-26, addressing these concerns will be critical to maintaining momentum both on the ice and in the stands. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
