Wayne Gretzky delivers incredible speech after Ovechkin passes goal record
Photo credit: ESPN
Alexander Ovechkin has officially passed Wayne Gretzky's goal record with his 895th career goal, which initiated a fantastic ceremony at centre ice.
Ovechkin scored the goal from his patented post on the powerplay off a rush chance, an out a thunderous shot home for the historic goal. He followed it up with a historic celly too.
Wayne Gretzky delivers incredible speech after Ovechkin takes NHL goal record
The Great One was ready and willing to pass down the goal record. Gretzky showed that by travelling with Ovechkin for the last few games, and delivering a fantastic speech at centre ice when the record was broken.
First of all, I want to say it's nice not to be in Nassau Coliseum, cause I lost a lot of games there.
We're here today to celebrate this guy here, number 8. I can tell you firsthand how hard it is to get 894. 895 is pretty special. My congratulations to not only Alex, his mom and dad, family, his wife and kids.
They say record are meant to be broken, but I'm not sure who's going to get more goals than that.
It's the greatest game in the world. I want to congratulate every organization, the commissioner of the league, and to the referees who do such a great job. Trust me, I was jawing back a lot when I played.
Alex, I said I was going to be the first one to shake your hand when you broke the record. Mr. Leonosis, congratulations. When I set the record they bought me a Rolls Royce, so you got your work cut out.
- Wayne Gretzky
We're here today to celebrate this guy here, number 8. I can tell you firsthand how hard it is to get 894. 895 is pretty special. My congratulations to not only Alex, his mom and dad, family, his wife and kids.
They say record are meant to be broken, but I'm not sure who's going to get more goals than that.
It's the greatest game in the world. I want to congratulate every organization, the commissioner of the league, and to the referees who do such a great job. Trust me, I was jawing back a lot when I played.
Alex, I said I was going to be the first one to shake your hand when you broke the record. Mr. Leonosis, congratulations. When I set the record they bought me a Rolls Royce, so you got your work cut out.
- Wayne Gretzky
It was an incredible speech from Wayne, touching on the emotional brevity of the moment and the amount of personal familial support it takes to reach that level of success. Gretzky cracked a few jokes to get laughs from the crowd, and even his referee thanking getting booed was hilarious.
Gretzky also wore a pin to honour Gordie Howe, who held the goal record for 31 years prior to Gretzky breaking the record.
Gretzky himself has revealed that he felt unsure about breaking Howe's record, but his father Walter famously talked him into the legacy of hockey and of passing down records.
This moment was hockey history. It was near unthinkable not long ago that any Gretzky record could be broken, but Ovechkin's dominance and longevity have earned him a place alongside Wayne as one of hockey's greatest players ever.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 6 | 668 ANSWERS Wayne Gretzky delivers incredible speech after Ovechkin passes goal record Do you think Ovechkin's record will ever be broken? | ||
| Yes | 499 | 74.7 % |
| No | 169 | 25.3 % |
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