A lot of goalies have seen red lights go on behind them when Alex Ovechkin is on the ice.
“The List.” There are 157 names on it, some of them hall-of-famers, some of them almost unknown in the annals of the NHL. But one thing all 157 names on the list share is that they are goalies who have been victimized by Alex Ovechkin in their respective careers. Let us take a closer look. First, “The List…”
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23353571/The_List_ovechkin_goalies.png)
The Hall of Famers
Of the 157 goalies on The List, three are inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame – Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, and Dominik Hasek – who account for 14 of the 772 goals Ovechkin has to date. Ovechkin posted only one goal against Dominik Hasek, the first Caps goal in a 4-3 shootout loss that would be Hasek’s last career appearance against the Caps and would be the only goal Hasek allowed to Ovechkin. It was scored on a formula that might have been relatively new at the time, but would become an important feature in Ovechkin’s repertoire. Power play, faceoff win, snap shot, goal…
The list of Hall of Famers will no doubt expand as those such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Henrik Lundqvist, Carey Price, or Ryan Miller make their way to the Hall.
The Vezina Winners
Ovechkin has at least one goal against 15 winners of the Vezina Trophy. This group has been lit up for 160 of Ovechkin’s 772 goals to date and is an impressive list:
- Marc-Andre Fleury (25 goals)
- Henrik Lundqvist (24)
- Carey Price (22)
- Ryan Miller (19)
- Sergei Bobrovsky (15)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy (10)
- Tuukka Rask (10)
- Tim Thomas (8)
- Martin Brodeur (7)
- Ed Belfour (6)
- Miikka Kiprusoff (6)
- Connor Hellebuyck (3)
- Jose Theodore (3)
- Dominik Hasek (1)
- Olaf Kölzig (1)
Hat Tricked
Three have been 15 goalies who yielded hat tricks to Ovechkin, not including those games in which he compiled the hat trick against more than one goalie or achieved it by virtue of an empty net goal. Devan Dubnyk is the only one who has seen Ovechkin record two hat tricks up close and personal:
- Devan Dubnyk
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Carey Price
- Kari Lehtonen
- Ondrej Pavelec
- Ben Bishop
- Craig Anderson
- Carter Hutton
- Martin Gerber
- Jean-Sebastien Giguere
- Cristobal Huet
- Martin Jones
- Jacob Markstrom
- Johan Hedberg
- Scott Darling
The Former Caps
Ovechkin has victimized ten goalies who would be Capitals at some point their respective careers:
- Craig Anderson (10 goals)
- Jaroslav Halak (10)
- Tomas Vokoun (8)
- Semyon Varlamov (7)
- Cristobal Huet (6)
- Brent Johnson (3)
- Philipp Grubauer (3)
- Jose Theodore (3)
- Justin Peters (1)
- Olaf Kolzig (1)
This group gave up 52 of Ovechkin’s 772 goals. Craig Anderson and Jaroslav Halak were the only two who yielded ten goals as opponents to Ovechkin.
Onesies
There have been 36 goalies who have been dinged for one goal by Ovechkin:
- Aaron Dell
- Adam Munro
- Adin Hill
- Anders Lindbäck
- Anton Forsberg
- Ben Scrivens
- Chris Driedger
- Chris Osgood
- Curtis Sanford
- Daniil Tarasov
- Darcy Kuemper
- Dominik Hasek
- Elvis Merzlikins
- Fredrik Norrena
- Hannu Toivonen
- Harri Sateri
- Jake Oettinger
- Jamie McLennan
- Jason LaBarbera
- Jeremy Swayman
- Jonas Gustavsson
- Jonas Hiller
- Jordan Binnington
- Josh Harding
- Justin Peters
- Kevin Weekes
- Laurent Brossoit
- Marek Mazanec
- Michael Garnett
- Michael Leighton
- Nathan Lawson
- Nico Daws
- Olaf Kölzig
- Patrick Lalime
- Sebastien Caron
- Thatcher Demko
In the end (well, for now)… Alex Ovechkin has scored 772 goals against 157 goalies in 583 games, the Caps compiling a record of 400-128-55 in those games in which Ovechkin posted at least one goal. It makes The List almost a badge of honor for the goalies on it. There is hardly any shame in being on it; they are part of history.