Alexander Ovechkin facing the Vancouver Canucks on the weekend in his chase of Wayne Gretzky’s career goal mark led to deep dives through record books.
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Alexander Ovechkin bagging his 841st career goal against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday brought out sentimental feelings.
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The Washington Capital stalwart’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s career goal-scoring mark got us to thinking about the most celebrated records in the big four North American pro sports leagues and which of those are the most likely to be surpassed.
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Here’s one take on the matter. (All active statistics are as of Monday. Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of the story on your favourite records or about the ones you think will be supplanted.)
NHL CAREER GOAL-SCORING
Record-holder: Gretzky, 894.
Next in line: Ovechkin, 841.
Chances of being broken: Sorry old-school fans. It’s changing hands.
The 38-year-old Ovechkin isn’t finding the back of the net like we’ve become accustomed (19 goals this season after averaging 48 the previous four full seasons), but he’s still getting pucks on goal (220 shots, 20th in the NHL). He could score 25 goals in both of the next two seasons just by parking himself in the left faceoff dot on the Washington power play and hammering one-timers. If he’s lasted this long, safe to say both he and the Caps are keen on him getting the record.
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The better question in all this: Where does Ovechkin rank in hockey’s hierarchy when he gets the record? Does he get that fourth spot on your proverbial hockey Mount Rushmore alongside Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr, supplanting the likes of a Mario Lemieux?
There’s another point to ponder as well. Auston Matthews was at 354 goals in his 26-year-old season at last count. Ovechkin was at 339 goals by the end of his 26-year-old season. Matthews did get a two-year head start on Ovechkin, of course.
NHL CAREER POINTS
Record-holder: Gretzky, 2,857.
Next in line: Jaromir Jagr, 1,921.
Top active: Sidney Crosby, 1,570.
Chances of being broken: Nope. Not happening either.
Crosby is No. 12 on the all-time list. He’s 36 years old. He’s not playing another 12 years and averaging 100 points a year over that span. Ovechkin is at 1,535. Connor McDavid is this era’s best player and he’s at 956 points at age 27. He would need to average 95 points over the next 20 seasons.
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NHL SINGLE-SEASON POINTS
Record-holder: Gretzky, 215, 1985-86.
Next in line: Gretzky, 212, 1981-82.
Top active: McDavid, 153, 2023-23.
Chances of being broken: Zero.
Gretzky has eight of the top-10 seasons all-time, with his 164 points in 1980-81 coming in at No. 10. McDavid or someone else from his era cracking that would be a major accomplishment. Gretzky was on another level, and goaltending and team defence have improved greatly since his day too.
NHL POINTS IN A GAME
Record-holder: Darryl Sittler, 10, 1976.
Next in line: 13 times a player has had eight points, including twice each by Gretzky and Lemieux.
Chances of being broken: Improbable but not impossible.
You would think that if it was going to broken it would have happened in the game’s free-wheeling 1980s, when checking and goaltending weren’t what they are now. That said, there’s a certain luck of the draw to a one-game outburst.
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MLB HITTING STREAK
Record-holder: Joe DiMaggio, 56 consecutive games, 1941.
Next in line: Wille Keeler, 45 games, 1896-97.
Top hitting streak in 2023: Marcus Semien, 25 games.
Chances of being broken: None. It’s our pick as most unbreakable record.
In 1941, the pitchers for the eight teams in the American League combined for 569 complete games over 156-game seasons. Thornton Lee of the Chicago White Sox had 30 complete games on his own.
Last year, the pitchers from the 15 AL clubs combined for 20 complete games over the 162-game campaign.
Hitters regularly see three and four pitchers a game.
DiMaggio struck out 13 times in 622 plate appearances in 1941, on his way to a .357 batting average. He was a career .325 hitter, with 369 strikeouts over his entire 13 seasons, all coming with the New York Yankees.
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Kyle Schwarber led the majors last season with 215 strikeouts — he was one of three hitters with 200 or more, one of 16 with at least 170 — to go along with his 47 homers, 126 walks and .197 batting average. Schwarber is a mainstay in the Philadelphia Phillies’ lineup, entering the third year of a four-year contract that pays him US$19.75 million a season.
The 25 highest strikeout seasons for a hitter in the game’s history have all come since 2007.
MLB SINGLE-SEASON HOME RUNS
Record-holder: Barry Bonds, 73, 2001.
Next in line: Mark McGwire 70, 1998.
Top active: Aaron Judge, 62, 2022.
Chances of being broken: Possible.
Six of the top seven seasons in home runs across the big leagues have occurred in the past nine years. Last season (5,868 homers) is No. 4, with 2019 (6,776) the leader.
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There’s that aforementioned swing-for-the-fences mentality we’ve seen come to the forefront. There’s also that baseball is the one of the big four that has the greatest control of its variables.
There’s been speculation about the ball being altered the past few years to create offence. Google “Juice Ball, MLB,” and you get over 170,000 hits.
Hockey did add to its offence with its changing of obstruction rules years back. Hockey isn’t about to change the size of its playing surfaces and baseball is readily capable of doing that. Teams can bring the fences closer to home plate. The Toronto Blue Jays and the Detroit Tigers both did that ahead of the 2023 season, for instance.
NFL CAREER TOUCHDOWN PASSES
Record-holder: Tom Brady, 649.
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Next in line: Drew Brews, 571.
Top active: Aaron Rodgers, 475.
Chances of being broken: Depends on how long the Kansas City Chiefs can keep it together.
Brady had been a starter for five seasons by the time he was 28 years olds and had 123 touchdown passes by then. Chiefs pivot Patrick Mahomes is 28, has been a starter for six seasons and has 219 touchdown passes.
Keep mind, though, that Brady has the most games played (335) by an NFL quarterback. Only 12 players in league history have broken 300 and eight were kickers or punters. Brady threw 43 touchdown passes as a 44-year-old, which was his second-to-last season.
Of course, Brady could come out of retirement again and pump up his stats even more.
NFL CAREER RUSHING YARDAGE
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Record holder: Emmitt Smith, 18,355.
Next in line: Walter Payton, 16,726.
Top active: Derrick Henry, 9,502.
Chances of being broken: Nope.
Only two active running backs — 28-year-old Ezekiel Elliott (2,065) and 30-year-old Henry (2,030) — have more than 1,600 career carries. Only 10 players in NFL history have surpassed 3,000 career carries and Smith (4,409) is the sole member of the 4,000 club, with Payton (3,838) in second spot on the list. Emmitt was an entity all his own.
The odds of a running back getting that many opportunities to amass that much yardage won’t exist again.
NBA MOST POINTS IN A SINGLE GAME
Record-holder: Wilt Chamberlain, 100, 1962.
Next in line: Kobe Bryant, 81, 2006.
Top active: Luka Doncic, 73, Jan. 26, 2024.
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Chances of being broken: It could happen.
The NBA added the three-point line for the 1979-80 season and we’ve seen the three-ball become a staple of the game over the past few years. Overall scoring has risen in the league as a result.
There have been 15 games in NBA history where a player went for 70 or more points. Six of them belong to Chamberlain. Five of them have happened since Jan. 1, 2023. Someone could get ridiculously hot from outside one night and take out Chamberlain’s mark. We are talking about a single game once again.
NBA CAREER POINTS
Record-holder: LeBron James, 40,154.
Next in line: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 38,387.
Next active after LeBron: Kevin Durant, 28,588.
Chances of being broken: No sir. We’re back to not happening.
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James has made it clear he wants to play with his son Bronny, 19, who’s a freshman guard at USC. The 39-year-old LeBron was also averaging 25.5 points, along with 7.2 rebounds and 8.1 assists, for the Los Angeles Lakers at last count, so it’s fair to say he has considerable gas left in his tank. He’s taking that record into the stratosphere.
SEwen@postmedia.com
x.com/@SteveEwen
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