{"id":261584,"date":"2025-10-30T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261584\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:55:07","slug":"alex-ovechkin-would-go-back-to-his-old-mirror-tinted-visor-if-the-nhl-let-him-still-bitter-about-change-spurred-on-by-martin-brodeur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261584\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin would go back to his old mirror-tinted visor if the NHL let him, still bitter about change spurred on by Martin Brodeur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only did Alex Ovechkin\u2019s skill draw fans\u2019 attention when he first arrived in the league, but so did his style. The 20-year-old Russian brought a unique flair to arenas across North America, including yellow skate laces, tucked jersey, and a mirror-tinted visor that made him look like RoboCop.<\/p>\n

However, that signature visor did not last long, as the league\u2019s general managers voted to outlaw it the summer after Ovechkin\u2019s freshman campaign. One of the major culprits behind its ban was a future Hall of Fame goaltender, who Ovechkin identified again during his recent sit-down interview with Jeff Marek and Bruce Boudreau on the Hockey Lifers Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it was Marty Brodeur said, like, he can\u2019t see my eyes, and I was like, \u2018What the heck? See my eyes? I\u2019m at the blueline, you\u2019re gonna look at my eyes?’\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s weird thing, but Gary (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman), I think, said, \u2018Okay, no more tinted visor for Ovi.\u2019 Okay, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin is on record as saying that the mirrored visor is his favorite he has used in his career, choosing it over the smoky-tinted visor he was forced to use early in his career and the clearer visor he currently uses<\/a>. He told Marek that he would love to go back to the mirrored visor in his age-40 season if the league would let him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, for sure,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cWhy not? Okay, NFL \u2013 they still have tinted visors. Nobody look in their eyes, right? Everybody look where\u2019s the ball, nobody cares. So, you have to look at the puck, not in your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Brodeur\u2019s complaints, Ovechkin continued to fool goalies despite the change. Without his mirrored visor, Ovechkin scored a career-high 65 goals during the 2007-08 season, his third year in the league. Ovechkin has kept scoring, even after Brodeur retired in 2015, racking up an all-time best 899 career goals through 1,501 career games.<\/p>\n

While the mirrored visor was technically banned in a 29-1 vote, with then-Capitals general manager George McPhee the only dissenter, the NHL has never explicitly included a prohibition on its use in its rulebook. The league is also leaning towards accepting more personal style choices, abolishing its dress code ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

With the Capitals wearing alternate jerseys adorned with the Screaming Eagle logo from Ovechkin\u2019s first two seasons in the league, a return for the visor could be a good nostalgic throwback in what could potentially be The Great 8\u2019s final year in the NHL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not only did Alex Ovechkin\u2019s skill draw fans\u2019 attention when he first arrived in the league, but so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-261584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}