Double-Fisting Records
Mike Leitao ~ 04/14/2025
Records were made to be broken. I don’t know who said that quote, but whoever it was should really take credit because it is one of the truest statements ever spoken. No matter how incredible or old a record might seem, it is set for one simple goal, for people to break it. Of course, that was back when records were for great achievements and being a record holder meant you were one of the best to ever do it. However, nowadays we keep records in both positive light along with negative light. So, while everyone says they want to be in the record books, it is important to notate which record book they want to be in, otherwise they might be wishing for quite the poor fate. This past week we saw two incredible hockey records passed. Well, one incredible one and one downright embarrassing one.
Of course, anyone with eyes or ears has seen or heard of the incredible record Alex Ovechkin broken over the past weekend, setting the record for most goals in an NHL career with 895. The previous record of 894 was held by Wayne Gretzky, the most clear cut GOAT of any of the major sports. The man holds almost every major impressive record a player can in the NHL, and many of his records felt unbreakable. The goal record was one of those. To break the record, you would have to play 20 seasons (that is a long time) and average 45 goals a season (that is a lot of goals). To put that in perspective, there were 9 players to score at least 45 goals last season, and this is in the current NHL where the players are scoring at an incredibly higher rate than they have over the last 20 years. This year, we will most likely only see 3 or 4 players hit that target, and none of them are players who hit the mark last year. The record was thought of as unbreakable for so many reasons. One of them was the fact that you had to have incredible longevity to play enough games to hit the mark. Both Gretzky and Ovechkin played in over 1,480 games to hit the mark, and that only includes the regular season. That is over 18 full 82 game seasons played by both men. Even if you came into the league as an 18-year-old stud and never sustained an injury in your entire career, you would hit that game mark towards the beginning of your 19th season where you would be 36 or 37. One or two major injuries could derail any elite goal scorer from hitting that mark. Combine that with the fact the goal amount you need to average over that span will mean you need to be consistently within the top 5 to 10 of goal scorers for that entire time, and it is easy to see why that record was thought of as unbreakable.
Of course, Ovechkin said fuck all that and became the greatest goal scorer of all time while also having lost time on his career due to a lockout season and a shortened COVID season. If neither of those happened, it would have been likely he would have hit this record last year at some point and could be on his way to chasing 1,000 goals. Ovechkin was long criticized as a player. Originally, he was criticized for his lack of defensive play and being reliant on the power play for his points and goals. He was then criticized later on in his career for his lack of playoff success and was known as a talented player and goal scorer but one who would never lead his team to a Stanley Cup. When Ovechkin won the Stanley Cup back in 2018, that narrative died pretty quickly. Ovechkin was and still is a truly special talent. Any hockey fan knows on the Washington power play he was going to the same spot he always went and the goal was to tee one up for him to rip it. All the players and everyone else watching knew that was the plan, yet it was almost impossible to stop because he has that lethal of a shot. Even as one of the greatest goal scorers of all time, his goal scoring talent is somehow still underrated as he can score in such a wide variety of ways and his shot is always a threat to go in from anywhere on the ice. Combine that with the fact he is also working on becoming the NHL leader in hits all time, and it is pretty obvious he is a special player.
Now, for the not so impressive record. The Bridgeport Islanders, the New York Islanders AHL team, has set the record for the least amount of home wins in AHL history. With two home games left this season, the Islanders can max out with a pathetic 6 home wins. The previous record was 8, meaning if they lose out they will have only won 4 out of a possible 36 games for an impressive 11% home winning percentage. The Islanders are not a good team in general, they only have 15 wins on the season, they have 1 player with over 50 points, all their goalies have a save percentage of below .900 and a goals against average of over 3. The team has been outscored 173 to 277. They have 37 points on the season and the next worst team has 52. Unlike the NHL, the AHL has a little more parity in the league as it is made up of young players looking for playing time in the NHL and veterans providing leadership and looking to show they still deserve a spot in the NHL.
What this normally means is that teams that are not so good in the NHL have better AHL teams and vice versa. However, the New York Islanders also suck, so this is not a good look for the Islanders on both fronts. The Islander’s management has long been criticized for their lack of drafting well and developing players while giving out longer contracts to older and average players. Years of consistent mediocrity and bad prospect pools have led them to where they are now, a team that is not good currently and has no real future. A very long and painful rebuild is most likely coming to Long Island, unless of course they decide to stretch their mediocrity even further. People do not show up to the games currently and will most likely not be for the foreseeable future. This embarrassing show by the AHL team should be the final nail in the coffin for the management group for the Islanders and hopefully for the fans, to bring in new life to the group who can steer this team towards the future properly. Similarly to Ovechkin’s goal record, my guess is this record will hold for a very very long time, probably even longer than the goal record. There have only been 3 NHL teams who have been this bad on home ice and that was back in the 1930s and 1940s. The worst NHL team since 2000 had at least 14 home wins, which could end up being 10 more than the Islanders get this year. Records were made to be broken, and I am sure this group hopes that statement holds true sooner rather than later.
