The US president has hailed the Russian hockey star after he broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL targets complete on Sunday
US President Donald Trump has praised Russian ice hockey star Alexander Ovechkin, calling him a “nice participant” and “gentleman” after he broke the Nationwide Hockey League’s all-time scoring report.
The 39-year-old Washington Capitals ahead achieved the milestone throughout Sunday’s sport in opposition to the New York Islanders, surpassing the long-standing report of 894 targets held by Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky.
“Nice hockey participant, an excellent gentleman simply broke the report of Wayne Gretzky. The nice one is Wayne Gretzky, however now we have one other nice one, huh? Simply broke the report, it was nice,” Trump stated on Tuesday.
Extensively thought-about the best hockey participant of all time, Gretzky scored 894 targets over 1,487 video games. Ovechkin matched that mark in his 1,486th sport and surpassed it in his subsequent sport.
The record-breaking objective got here at 12:34 of the second interval in opposition to the Islanders, when Ovechkin took a feed from Tom Wilson and fired a shot previous fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin – Ovechkin’s first ever objective in opposition to the goaltender. Play stopped to honor the milestone, with Ovechkin receiving congratulations from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Gretzky himself.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Ovechkin on Monday for his “excellent achievement.”
“You have got surpassed legendary gamers within the variety of targets scored in regular-season NHL video games,” Putin stated.
Beating Gretzky’s seemingly unbreakable report “has change into not only a private triumph, however a real celebration for followers in Russia and world wide,” the president added.
Ovechkin is a three-time world champion with the Russian nationwide group and received the 2018 Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals, the group he has spent his complete NHL profession with.
The Russian embassy within the US stated earlier this week that “actually all of America” had rallied behind Ovechkin’s pursuit of Gretzky’s report. Consequently, the embassy famous a hovering curiosity in organizing a match between Russian and North American groups.
Throughout a cellphone name on March 18, Putin and Trump mentioned hockey and the potential of organizing video games between American and Russian gamers from the NHL and KHL.
With Russia sidelined from many worldwide competitions as a result of Ukraine-related sanctions, the NHL stays a uncommon platform the place Russian gamers proceed to showcase the power of the nation’s hockey custom.
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