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The Vladimir Putin Takes Were Flowing After Alex Ovechkin Broke Wayne Gretzky’s All-Time Scoring Record

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

Apr 6, 2025; Elmont, New York, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) is honored with a painting by artist Tony Harris by former Canadian-American ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky after scoring in the during the second period against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena. Ovechkin scored the 895th goal of his career, breaking the NHL all-time career goals record previously held by Wayne Gretzky at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Ovie broke the record on Sunday:

Putting aside the fact that Ovechkin is a filthy supporter of a terrorist regime, the Washington Capitals, the moment really was captivating. The place went nuts, his teammates mobbed him at center ice, and they stopped the game for a full-on ceremony that included Gretzky, some guy named “Gary Bettman,” and Ovie’s family. They took turns on the mic, Ovechkin did a few rounds of waving to the crowd and individually hugging every member of the organ-eye-zation, then they resumed the game. The NHL really did a brilliant job capturing a historic moment, it’s just a shame that some Islanders fans in the crowd got to see it in person.

The response on social was, of course, all over the place. Ovechkin, if you didn’t know, is a Vladimir Putin supporter and folks made sure to remind everyone of it:

I guess the question for Flyers fans is whether or not you care about Ovie’s citizenship and who or what he supports. Is it any different than the domestic arguments we have about the Eagles visiting Donald Trump’s White House? What’s the attitude towards Russian players anyway? I’m old enough to remember when Ivan Provorov caused a stir by refusing to wear the Pride Night warmups and then told everyone in the locker room that he’s a Russian Orthodox Christian. Then people got really mad and went after his golden retriever on Instagram. It got so bad that his girlfriend had to ask people to stop attacking their dog. A few years before that, Artemi Panarin came out and criticized Putin, becoming probably the highest-profile Russian athlete to do so at the time. There were soccer players overseas who criticized Putin for the Ukraine war as well.

So it’s really a mixed bag. You’re not putting every Russian NHL player into a box. Matvei Michkov hasn’t said anything about politics or social issues and I’m not sure anyone’s ever asked him about it. Same with Zamula and Fedotov, and we all know the story with the latter. Maybe this Ovie/Putin thing is a classic “stick to sports” argument, or maybe not. You tell me.

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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