{"id":579079,"date":"2026-04-12T03:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/579079\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:31:07","slug":"did-alex-ovechkin-want-to-pass-up-his-empty-netter-against-pittsburgh-today-so-that-his-final-goal-is-on-a-goalie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/579079\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Alex Ovechkin want to pass up his empty-netter against Pittsburgh today so that his final goal is on a goalie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin<\/a> is one of the most unselfish players in NHL history, known around the league as a guy who celebrates his teammates\u2019 goals more than his own. But in Saturday\u2019s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, which may have been his final appearance in The Steel City, Ovi had some unusual decision-making late in the game.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin lit the lamp for the 929th time in his career with an empty-net goal<\/a>, but what he did right before that raised some eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin and Tom Wilson<\/a> played a game of hot potato with the puck \u2014 passing back and forth with each other \u2014 before Ovechkin eventually relented and shot it into the yawning twine. Ovechkin, who has the most empty-netters in NHL history with 72, almost always is ultra-aggressive in empty-net opportunities.<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin\u2019s 929th career goal<\/p>\n

Ovechkin was mic\u2019d up for the game, which captured his reaction and conversation after the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to give it to you,\u201d he told Wilson, grinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019mon, respect first,\u201d Wilson replied.<\/p>\n

Wilson had scored earlier in the contest for his 30th goal of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many times we passed it back and forth, but it felt like three or four,\u201d Wilson told reporters postgame.<\/a> \u201cWe say it\u2019s respect first. So he\u2019s the legend, and it\u2019s always fun to assist on an Ovi goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why would Ovechkin pass up an opportunity to score in a situation like this? One clue may be from December 23, 2022, during one of the biggest nights of his career.<\/p>\n

While out during an empty-net opportunity against the Winnipeg Jets<\/a>, Ovechkin appeared uncomfortable shooting when he scored the 802nd goal of his career<\/a>, passing Gordie Howe for second on the NHL\u2019s all-time goals list. Like this afternoon\u2019s tally with Wilson, Ovechkin kept passing the puck back to Evgeny Kuznetsov before running out of real estate and sending a no-look shot from the sideboards into the net.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s actions strongly suggested he\u2019d prefer to score on a goaltender for the milestone, but he didn\u2019t say as much after the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it\u2019s kind of situation if you have it, you take it,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cI give it to Kuzy, and he\u2019s like I don\u2019t want to take it. After that, it\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll feel probably bad if I score over there, and half of the world probably will be so mad at me,\u201d Kuznetsov added. \u201cI do have a lot of haters anyway. The reputation or whatever, so I rather to lose the puck over there and backcheck if he didn\u2019t score. I\u2019m glad that it happened in front of our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming into today\u2019s game against the Penguins, Ovechkin\u2019s previous goal, the 928th of his career<\/a>, was scored against Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>\u2018 goaltender Dan Vladar<\/a>, which turned out to be the game-winning goal in the Capitals\u2019 6-4 victory on March 31.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, who is in the final year of his contract with the Capitals, has said he will make a decision over the summer on whether to keep playing and reiterated that point during his media session with reporters after the Penguins game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be my last year or not,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cSo I will talk if I\u2019m going to say I\u2019m retired. But I didn\u2019t say that, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one has to wonder. Ovechkin has been thoughtful, especially at the end of his career, about empty-net opportunities. He famously turned down a chance to score a hat trick against the Chicago Blackhawks and break the NHL goals record in front of his home fans<\/a> on April 4, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell Carbs right away, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do it,\u2019\u201d Ovechkin said postgame<\/a>. \u201cStromer ask me, Carly ask me, everybody ask me, \u2018Do you want it? Do you want it?\u2019 I said, \u2018Let\u2019s wait.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to break the record with a goaltender in the crease, which I appreciate, and he didn\u2019t want to go up,\u201d Carbery said that night. \u201cHe told me that on the bench, and I just wanted to confirm and make sure that he didn\u2019t want to go out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing at home, it\u2019s hard, right? Because for us as coaches and me, even, I just want to make sure that he \u2014 \u2018Are you sure in this moment, hat trick, at home?\u2019 And he didn\u2019t want to go out and score on an empty net to break the record. And I appreciate that. We have six games left. He wants to break the record and have that moment be where he\u2019s shooting a puck past a goalie. And I have a lot of appreciation for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s final goal of his career will ultimately be the NHL goals record \u2014 the next number that will be chased by players for generations to come. The goal will be a highlight that\u2019s aired over and over, helping paint a picture of one of the most brilliant careers in hockey history for future fans.<\/p>\n

I would understand if Ovechkin prefers that final goal, whenever it is, to be against a goalie. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin is one of the most unselfish players in NHL history, known around the league as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-579079","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\/579079","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=579079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}