Goalies throughout NHL rooting for Ovechkin during Gretzky chase

WASHINGTON -- Even before Alex Ovechkin scored his 890th NHL goal against James Reimer on Sunday, the Buffalo Sabres goalie knew the best he could hope for was to slow Ovechkin’s pursuit of history.

“He's obviously the greatest scorer of all time,” Reimer said last week. “So, he's had a knack for scoring.”

At least Reimer was able to leave town with a win after the Sabres held off Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 8-5 at Capital One Arena. Ovechkin moved within five goals of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 with his deflection in the third period, though, before setting his sights on whoever will be in net for the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, NESN, TVAS2, SN1).

“Obviously, there’s a whole lot of hoopla around the whole thing, and for good reason,” Reimer said. “It needs to be that way, and he deserves it. But obviously, as a goalie you just want to keep him to under one.”

Reimer’s respect for Ovechkin while trying to stop him demonstrates the dichotomy of emotions goalies across the NHL are experiencing while watching the 39-year-old left wing chase down Gretzky. Although no one wants to be the goalie Ovechkin scores his 895th goal against or help him get closer to the record, many of them are rooting for him to break it.

“I think everyone just appreciates how special what he’s doing is,” Los Angeles Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper said. “Obviously, when you’re playing against him, you don’t want him to score. But when you go and check the box scores after the game, everyone is like, ‘Oh, nice, another ‘Ovi’ goal.’

“So, everyone’s rooting for him and it’s so special what he’s doing.”

Kuemper has a little different perspective after being teammates with Ovechkin for two seasons with the Capitals before being traded to the Kings last offseason. But Kuemper isn’t alone in his admiration for what Ovechkin is on the verge of accomplishing.

“It’s just one of those things you tip your cap to (him),” St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. “It’s a respect thing. If someone does a good job at something and you respect the game, you’ve got to think, ‘Hats off.’”

Part of it, at least after the fact, is being a part of history. After Ovechkin scored Washington’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Feb. 25, goalie Dan Vladar didn’t seem to mind that much that his name would be attached to his 883rd goal, especially after a win.

“Obviously, it's going to be a story for my kids one day that a player like that scored on me,” Vladar said. “But obviously in that moment, you don't appreciate it. I’m happy we just play twice (a season) against them.”

Playing in the Western Conference the past four seasons with the Flames, Vladar doesn’t have to worry about facing Ovechkin often, but he has scored three goals in five games against him. It’s similar for Binnington, who has played all eight of his NHL seasons with the Blues.

Ovechkin has still managed to score three goals in four games against Binnington, who can attest to how lethal his shot is.

“You've got to see it to believe it, kind of thing,” Binnington said. “You watch all the highlights of him one-timing a puck from the same spot and then going in, and you're kind of like, ‘Slide over and make the save.’ And then you see it in action. I don’t know, it just comes off his stick different and he knows where to be, obviously, to score goals.

“I know personally I am on his list of goalies scored on. I'm not alone.”

Binnington is one of an NHL-record 182 different goalies Ovechkin has scored against. Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen remembers becoming the 167th at Washington on Jan. 3, 2023.

“He just ripped one bar down off the face-off,” said Luukkonen, who has allowed four goals to Ovechkin in seven career meetings. “They won it back, and he just ripped it. And I was like, you know that’s kind of what makes it special, and you realize how much better he is at that than pretty much anybody else.”

Ovechkin continues to demonstrate that in his 20th NHL season, all with the Capitals. He leads Washington and is tied for sixth in the NHL with 37 goals in 57 games this season despite missing 16 games with a fractured left fibula from Nov. 21-Dec. 23.

“He’s been doing it for such a long period of time,” said Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, who has given up nine goals to Ovechkin in 12 games. “He’s seemed to not really get hurt. It’s been a little bit of an issue this year, but other than that, he’s been a machine. I don’t know what they’re feeding him over in Russia, but he just keeps going.

“It’s pretty impressive to see. It’s a great thing for hockey to see that happening.”

Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has seen it for 20 seasons. Ovechkin’s 28 goals in 47 games against Fleury are his most goals and games versus against any goalie.

Yet, Fleury, who plans to retire after this season, wants to see him break the goal record, too.

“I always love and admire his love of the game,” said Fleury, who is second in NHL history with 573 wins. “His energy in the games, his enthusiasm. He’s so happy when he scores goals. He’s so enthusiastic when he scores goals. Like this season, right? You see how many times he scores. That’s how he was for many, many years always so happy and eager to score goal.

“That’s all he wanted to do.”

As much as goalies admire Ovechkin’s love of the game and his scoring skill, though, you can’t blame them for preferring that he’d score the record-breaking goal against someone else.

“I hope he breaks it, but not against me,” said Luukkonen, who backed up Reimer on Sunday. “(Trevor) Zegras and [Sonny Milano], they scored the flip goal against me, and I think I've been in highlights all over the world after that. So, I'm not looking forward to being in the highlights again.”

NHL.com independent correspondents Kurt Dusterberg, Heather Engel and Jessi Pierce contributed to this report.