Did Ovechkin have an assist from someone other than a teammate in breaking the record amount of goals scored in the NHL? Has he been using steroids?
The previous record holder for lifetime goals scored was Wayne Gretzky. He was assisted in his record by having a 92 goal and an 87 goal season. Ovechkin’s best year was 65 goals scored. Obviously Gretzky at his peak was a lot better than Ovechkin.
Yes, Ovechkin has a much more consistent record of goals scored per year. Still there are some anomalies. Just last year, he only had 31 goals. How come this year he already has 42 goals? To be honest, I thought I would be writing this post next season, not this season.
In 2011 and 2012, he finish with only 32 and 38 goals in each season. In 2013 he had 32 goals in only 48 games played. Then he had a run of three 50 goal seasons. Maybe he started steroids in 2013.
It’s not like Russian athletes don’t use steroids. Russia was in bad standing with the IOC and not allowed to compete from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi till just a couple years ago. The ban was extended because of the Russian war on Ukraine.
Why have no other countries been banned from competing? Others have been caught cheating, too. Well the Sochi Olympic cheating was systemic in their efforts and had state sponsored doping by Russia. Also Russia has been caught the most times of any nation using drugs at the Olympics.
Anyhow, Ovechkin likely has had a chance to use performance enhancing drugs. If he hasn’t, wonderful. I still think it’s likely that he has. Remember a couple of years ago I accused Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars of the same thing. Dallas is my favourite team in the NHL. But players doing so well in their late 30s strikes me as suspicious.
I don’t know if the NHL ever tests its players for use of steroids. So maybe all I’ll ever have are my suspicions. But baseball has had big stars admit to it later in life. Maybe this will happen to Ovechkin. Maybe the story isn’t over.
