Alex Ovechkin refused to break Gretzky's goal record yesterday

I don't really watch ice hockey all that frequently but I do enjoy it every now and then. I live in a city that has a team but tickets are overpriced just like everything else here so I don't bother to go. I will keep up with the stats every now and then and there is a very important one that is almost certainly going to turn some heads this year and that is the "Great One" having his career goal tally surpassed after 25 years of the record going untouched.

The man who is again, almost certainly going to surpass the record is Alex Ovechekin who plays for the Washington Capitals.

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Here's a little bit of history about Alec Ovechkin: He is Russian and he is currently 39 years old. He is currently tied with Wayne Gretzky on the career goals scored and he is one of only 3 player to score more than 800 goals. The other one is Gordie Howe and while to me that name sounds familiar, I don't know much about him.

Anyway, Alex is the captain of the capitals and was signed to them in 2004, He has only ever played for one team, which is kind of nice to see. He makes about $10 million a season but because he is Russian he doesn't have the sponsorship opportunities that other players have had in the past. Politics are stupid and don't belong in sports but that is the world we live in. None of the fans give him any grief for his nationality and this is a good thing not just for him but the league seeing as how so many quality ice-hockey players are from Russia.

Alex is seen as one of the greatest players of all time, perhaps THE greatest, but you rarely see articles praising him because again, he is Russian.

He did something really cool and he gained a lot of respect from me and many others yesterday though when he requested to be taken out of the game when the opposing team pulled their goalkeeper in the final moments of the game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks because he doesn't want to surpass Gretzky's record on an open-net goal.

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I have a ton of respect for this and even though ice hockey is a brutal sport, there is a ton of respect between players and of course a great admiration of Wayne Gretzky, who will always be remembered as something truly great in all of sports history.

It's a shame that the media seems to be retrained in letting people know that this is happening because of Alex's nationality. It's downright childish actually but it just kind of goes to show that the media is definitely involved in politics despite what their claims might be.

there's no hard feelings with Wayne, as you can see here he was in attendance cheering for Ovechkin when he tied his record.

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There are 6 games left in the season and Ovechkin would probably prefer to score his record-breaking goal in front of his home fans. If that is the case, they will have to bench him in his next game in New York. On Thursday he will be playing at home against Carolina and if it is still tied between him and Gretzky at that point, I would imagine that this will end up being one of the most watched NHL games of all time.