‘He can make you look stupid’: NHL goalies on the challenge of facing Alex Ovechkin

“He freakin’ knows how to put the puck in the net.”

Ovechkin has done it a total of 889 times over the last two decades to sit just six goals from passing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894.

The 39-year-old Washington Capitals superstar approaching hockey immortality — 10 games remain on this season’s schedule — has scored on 182 netminders over the last two decades.

Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets allowed Ovechkin’s 600th in March 2018. Much like Blackwood, he can recount the moment in vivid detail.

“I was diving, sprawling,” said the two-time Vezina Trophy winner, beaten a total of six times in his career by the Russian winger. “It was in Washington. Everyone came out and celebrated, of course.”

“Nice to be part of history, but it’s not my history,” Hellebuyck added with a smile. “Cool to be there, just the wrong end of it.”

Montreal Canadiens’ puck-stopper Sam Montembeault can recite the two goals Ovechkin has on him, right down to where they fit in his legacy — Nos. 777 and 832.

“I tried to remember,” he said. “Pretty cool in case he beat the record.”

Opponents past and present say the No. 1 overall pick at the 2004 NHL draft’s shot is simply different.

“Jumps off his stick quick and it’s heavy,” said goaltender-turned-broadcaster Brian Boucher, a veteran of 13 seasons. “He’s got a good knack of making sure he hits the net.

“Very tough to pick up and it’s on you before you know it.”

Boucher was one of Ovechkin’s first — and most famous — victims despite having surrendered only two goals to the future Hall of Famer.

The bulldozing forward was a rookie in January 2006 when an outrageous solo effort ended with him sliding on his back and facing away from goal before somehow shovelling the puck into the Phoenix Coyotes’ net with Gretzky, the team’s head coach, looking on from the bench.

Much like the league’s current crop of goaltenders, getting bested by an icon marching to a mark once thought untouchable is a badge of honour.

“We’re all part of a group of people that have been beaten by the best,” Boucher said.

Martin Biron, another ex-netminder now working in television, said that while Ovechkin has no doubt dazzled with one-on-one rushes, his bread and butter is brute force — namely that lethal one-timer from the left faceoff circle on the power play.

“Even if you know that shot’s coming, you have to get there,” said a player fooled four times by Ovechkin across his 16-season resume. “It’s like a jackhammer. It would hit you and it would want to go right through you.”

Biron said Ovechkin’s ability to score with pure velocity meant picking corners was never a priority.

“There was no fear of, ‘I better put a perfect shot on net,'” Biron said. “He just figured, ‘All I have to do is hit the net and my shot could score.'”

Biron likened goaltenders facing an effort off Ovechkin’s stick — exaggerated curve and all — to a batter in baseball.

“If you don’t read the ball out of the pitcher’s hand, you don’t have time to react,” he said. “Very hard to tell off his blade where the puck’s going.”

Hellebuyck, who allowed goal No. 889 earlier this week, isn’t sure Ovechkin has a plan other than to smack the puck as hard as possible.

“I don’t think he cares as long as it hits the net,” he said. “It comes off at such speed and it knuckles. You get caught blinking and it might be by you.”

Like any competitor, Boucher wanted to play as much as possible throughout his career. Getting a night off when the Capitals were in town, however, wasn’t the worst news.

“You probably were breathing a sigh of relief,” he said. “It’s gonna be a sleepless night and sleepless afternoon. You have to game plan, you have to know where he is.

“If you’re not ready for the unexpected, he can make you look stupid.”

The unpredictability of Oveckhin’s shot is what Blackwood still struggles to explain.

“Sometimes it comes off really hot — clean and it’s a missile,” said a goalie bested on six occasions by Washington’s captain. “Sometimes it comes off knuckly and dips. And then sometimes … it’s just weird.

“Ovechkin puts a spell on it or something. I don’t know.”

He’s far from the only goaltender still searching for answers.

-With files from Daniel Rainbird in Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2025.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

‘He can make you look stupid’: NHL goalies on the challenge of facing Alex Ovechkin

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