What’s it like trying to stop Alex Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky? These goalies will be able to tell you

Maybe Alex Ovechkin didn’t realize just how hard he could shoot it.

It’s no secret the Washington Capitals captain loves to score. He’s been firing pucks from all angles and punching the air in celebration since he racked up 52 goals as a rookie in 2005. When Ovechkin arrived, no goalies were safe — not even the ones on his own team.

“I think he had to taper it down in practice a little bit because he realized he was banging up his own goalies, not only confidence-wise but physically,” said Olaf Kölzig, who played 711 games in goal for the Capitals over 15 seasons, including Ovechkin’s first three.

“We’d leave the rink sometimes with bruises on our body and be like, ‘OK Ovie, we understand you’ve got the hardest shot in the league but you’ve gotta kinda tone it down a little bit.’ And he has, he’s been a lot more respectful towards his own goalies over the years.”

The practice rink is the only place Ovechkin toned down the scoring. Now in his 17th NHL season, the 36-year-old continues to climb the all-time scoring list. Ovechkin comes into Thursday night’s contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs on a four-game goal streak and with 46 on the year. He is third with 776 career regular-season goals, 25 behind Gordie Howe and 118 behind Wayne Gretzky’s once-upon-a-time unbreakable record of 894.

Gretzky and Ovechkin have scored a combined 1,670 goals, leaving distraught goaltenders in their wake over the span of four decades. And while a six-year gap between Gretzky’s 1999 retirement and Ovechkin’s 2005 debut makes on-ice comparisons between these two feel like folklore, there are a select few who are qualified to set the record straight: the 11 goalies in NHL history who have been scored on by both Ovechkin and Gretzky.

“I don’t know if I take pride in being part of that,” Martin Brodeur told the Star after learning about his place on the list.

“I’m going to have to phone my therapist,” quipped Sean Burke.

“At least I’m part of a list,” joked Mike Dunham.

The Star spoke to four goaltenders in this exclusive club, which includes Burke (13 combined goals against), Brodeur (12), Jean-Sébastien Giguère (eight), Ed Belfour (seven), Nikolai Khabibulin (six), Kölzig and Chris Osgood (four), and Dunham, Dominik Hasek, Kevin Weekes and Garth Snow (three).

So what’s it like to try — and fail — to stop both The Great One and The Great Eight over the course of a career? Burke, who played for nine teams over 18 seasons, knows more than anyone. He was scored on 10 times by Gretzky and three by Ovechkin. But there’s one goal in particular that still haunts him.

“I remember it vividly because John Tortorella was not very happy with me, so I was benched for a little while after that game,” said Burke, who, while playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning, allowed a game-tying goal and shootout winner to Ovechkin in his rookie season. “The goal must have been pretty bad because I took a lot of heat, but looking back, it was Ovechkin, so it couldn’t have been that bad a goal.”

There might be recency bias to it, but Ovechkin’s goals seemed to stand out a little more.

“I can’t even remember the ones Gretzky scored on me,” Kölzig laughed. Gretzky beat him on three occasions, but the goal that stings was in his final season after he signed with the Lightning. “Ovie’s I remember because I was a little bummed out in that game in general because it was my first game back in D.C. and they had a video tribute for me. It was 3-0 before that video even played. So I was already in a sour mood before Ovie scored and it really just made the whole night miserable.”

Ovechkin is most famous for his shot. For years highlight shows have played clips of him unleashing one-timers, snap shots and wrist shots on repeat, usually from his on-ice office at the top of the left-wing circle. It’s how hockey fans will explain his game to the next generations. It’s also in line with what the NHL goaltenders who played against him insist on talking about. His shot hurt.

“Ovie is just a pure bull. He does everything hard and fast. He can hurt you with his shot, he can hurt you with his body,” said Kölzig, still reminiscing over getting beat up by his teammate at practice. He’d be happy to know the opposition felt the same way.

“With Ovie it’s just a matter of trying to make yourself as big as you can and get a piece of it,” Burke said. “Get yourself in position and hope that he doesn’t hit you in the wrong part of the anatomy.”

Dunham, who played 10 NHL seasons and is now a goalie development coach for the Boston Bruins, said there is only so much he can do to help prepare a goaltender to play against Ovechkin.

“No matter how much you tell a goalie or prepare a goalie, it’s hard to stop that shot,” he said. “It’s too fast for you to react. You hope it hits you or hope it goes wide … and hopefully it doesn’t hurt if it does hit me. You hope it hits you in the pads on your legs. With these one-piece sticks, everyone shoots the puck hard, but Ovie’s would come off his stick like a shotgun.”

So if Ovechkin was known among goalies for his braun, Gretzky was known for his brain. The fact that the NHL’s all-time goals leader isn’t really known as a goal-scorer is a testament to that.

“It’s funny I don’t really think of Wayne Gretzky as a goal-scorer even though he has the record,” Kölzig said. “I think of obviously Ovie and Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman. Gretz was just one of the best all-around players. He made everybody that ever played with him better.”

The sentiment was shared with his padded peers.

“Wayne’s goal-scoring almost goes under the radar because of the fact he produced so many points and was known for so many things on the ice,” Burke said. “His creativity, his passing, his vision.”

Vision was the most common term used to describe what made Gretzky such a threat. Brodeur likened it to knowing something was coming but not the direction it was coming from. Gretzky kept the goalies on their toes.

“You always had to be aware of your surroundings, which was tough to do because sometimes he found options no one saw,” Dunham said.

When the sun sets on Ovechkin’s career — he still has another four years on his contract after this season — it’s inevitable that he and Gretzky will have scored more goals than anyone in NHL history, but the way they accomplished it couldn’t have been more different. As for who will be left standing at the top of the list, it all depends on if Ovechkin can continue to defy age.

“He’s driven and I really can’t see him not breaking it,” said Kölzig, who now works as a professional development coach with the Capitals and remains close with Ovechkin. “It’s hard for me to say that, but two years ago it wasn’t even thought about, and now it’s becoming closer and closer to a reality.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Gretzky himself said “it’s not even a question that he will pass me, and I think it’s great.”

Brodeur can relate to that feeling. He played 22 NHL seasons and, like Gretzky, holds a handful of all-time records that at least appear to be unbreakable (games played, wins, losses and shutouts).

“When I was chasing Patrick Roy or Terry Sawchuk, it’s amazing how hard it is. There’s a lot of stars that have to be aligned,” Brodeur said. “So if anybody ever comes close, you have to tip your hat, because I know what I had to go through to get to those all-time records.”

He had to go through two of the greatest goal-scorers we’ve ever seen.

SHARE: