Headline Roundup • April 7th, 2025
The Politics Behind Alex Ovechkin Breaking Wayne Gretzky’s Goal Record
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Russian hockey player Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s regular-season goal record on Sunday, drawing media perspectives on Ovechkin’s political views.
Dark Times: Mark MacKinnon of The Globe and Mail (Center bias) argued the course history has taken to the current “dark geopolitical era” has “tainted” the legacies of both Ovechkin and Gretzky. MacKinnon cited Ovechkin’s Russian patriotism and support for President Vladimir Putin and Gretzky’s friendship with President Donald Trump as driving factors of this.
Different Times: Colin Horgan of The Guardian (Left) highlighted Ovechkin’s “astonishing playing career” but said it will “always be accompanied by an asterisk” because of “his unsavory, full-throated support for Vladimir Putin.” Horgan also noted Gretzky’s recent reputational slide with Canadians and said two decades ago, “athletes could more easily separate their sport persona with the world beyond the game,” but that “the political and cultural environment has changed significantly.”
Fans Don’t Care: A report from Ethan Sears of The New York Post (Lean Right) included an analysis of the National Hockey League and Ovechkin’s politics at the end. Sears wrote, “With the league throwing its resources into celebrating Ovechkin, it seems clear that the superstar’s popularity has not been dented by his support of Russian president Vladimir Putin.” He described Putin as a “dictator” that Ovechkin publicly supports, but despite it, Ovechkin received a “loud celebration” on Sunday and “everyone got what they came to see.”
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Featured Coverage of this Story
Adam Hunger/AP
“He’s definitely a very, very, very good player,” the Washington Capitals’ director of amateur scouting, Ross Mahoney, told reporters on the night of the NHL entry draft in June 2004. He was talking about Alex Ovechkin, who the team picked first overall that night. “How good will he be?” Mahoney asked. “Time will tell.” Now, nearly 21 years later, time has had its say. On Sunday afternoon in a game against the New York Islanders, Ovechkin scored his 895th goal, passing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL scoring record, a tally that had...
It was a cold January night at Moscow’s famed Luzhniki Palace of Sports, just 21 years ago but in a completely different world.
George W. Bush was in the White House. He had just looked into the eyes of Russia’s new President, Vladimir Putin. Afterward, Mr. Bush infamously said he’d seen into Mr. Putin’s soul and decided this was someone he could trust.
On the ice that night, an 18-year-old kid wearing the blue-and-white jersey of Moscow Dynamo grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone and accelerated across the...
The Great Eight is now the greatest goal-scorer.
Alex Ovechkin completed his chase of Wayne Gretzky on Sunday at UBS Arena, scoring his 895th career goal to stand atop hockey’s all-time list, blasting the puck in from the top of his office, the left circle, for a power-play goal at 7:26 of the second period after Casey Cizikas went off for tripping.
Right after the puck hit nylon, Ovechkin went into a swan dive toward center ice, the Capitals and Islanders alike spilled off the benches and a crowd largely...
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