Against All Odds, The Philadelphia Flyers Narrowly Avoided Being The Team Alexander Ovechkin Broke Gretzky's Record Against
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Plan the parade, baby!
It's been some long, shitty years as a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Just year after year of this dickhead organization being plagued by mediocrity. And when you've been a Flyers fan for so long, you just come to an understanding that certain things are always going to happen against the Flyers.
If an opposing player has been in a scoring drought for a few weeks and desperately needs a goal, he'll end up with 3 against the Flyers. I don't even want to think about how many players in the NHL have scored their first career goal against the Flyers over the last 10 years. And if a player is close to achieving a major career milestone, a game on the schedule against the Flyers usually does the trick.
So if you did the math to start the season, you knew that Alexander Ovechkin needs to score 42 goals this season to break Gretzky's record. In 2009, Ovi scored his 42nd goal of the season on February 18th. In 2015, he scored his 42nd goal of the year on March 3rd. In 2018, he scored his 42nd goal of the year on March 12th. In 2023, he scored his 42nd goal of the year on March 25th.
So you figured if he was going to do the damn thing, it would take place at some point in mid-to-late March. You go ahead and check the schedule and there it was….March 20th against the Philadelphia Flyers. The absolute perfect moment for Alexander Ovechkin to cement his legacy as the greatest goal scorer in the history of the National Hockey League. And without fail, he put one in the back of the net last night.
By some divine intervention, Ovi broke his leg earlier this season and missed 16 games. If that doesn't happen, he scores goals 894, 895, and probably even 896 last night. Because that's just the way it goes against the Flyers. But somehow, some way, the Flyers avoided that fate this year. As long as Ovechkin manages to score 7 more goals in Washington's final 13 games of the season, the Flyers will never have to worry about constantly being cemented in history as the team Ovi broke the scoring record against.
After years and years of dog shit hockey, that's enough of a win in my book. I spent this entire season living in constant fear that he'd break the record against the Flyers. And now that it hasn't happened, it's like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Unless, of course, Ovi doesn't break the record this year and he does it early in the year against the Flyers next season. But let's not even think about that just yet. If anything, it happens on April 17th against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.