Talk:Alexander Ovechkin

701 goals
Update :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.162.15.141 (talk) 18:33, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Ovechkin weight? 218 is old!
Ovechkin's weight keeps getting changed. I think the source of the problem is that the IIHF has the wrong weight, since I doubt very much that the IIHF is weighing the players themselves. The weight they use is likely out-of-date regardless of when they publish it. His 218 weight is before he bulked up. Any other opinions? BashBrannigan (talk) 01:38, 27 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I doubt, that he could reduce by 7 kg too, but I doubt more, that the International Ice Hockey Federation uses every year the old information of the Ovechkin's weight. I have the opinion, that he is weighed in the NHL with a hockey kit. Der russische Patriot (talk) 16:47, 27 July 2010 (UTC)


 * The chronology of the Ovechkin's weight on the IIHF-site since 2006:
 * 15 May 2006 — 90 kg
 * 12 May 2007 — 103 kg
 * 9 May 2008 — 99 kg
 * 16 May 2010 — 99 kg. Der russische Patriot (talk) 17:37, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

The Caps 2010 playoff media guide lists Ovechkin's weight as 233. here on page 45--Mo Rock...Monstrous (talk) 00:06, 11 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Ovechkin only plays a few games in IIHF tournaments, so his NHL stats should take preference. BashBrannigan (talk) 00:21, 11 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Varlamov and Semin have the bigger Weight in NHL too. Compare: SEMYON VARLAMOV: NHL - Wt.: 209, IIHF - 194, ALEXANDER SEMIN: NHL - Wt.: 208, IIHF - 205. How often are players weighed in NHL? Der russische Patriot (talk) 12:27, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know how often they are weighed since a Google search turned up more about Doug Weight than the NHL weighing processes. However, I agree with BashBrannigan (talk) that the NHL number should take precedent being that he is most notably an NHL player. Are there more references that say Ovechkin in 218 besides the one you mention? I know of four that list him at the 233 (the media guide I mentioned before, Hockey DB, NHL.com and Hockey Reference.com) I also feel we should go with the majority.

As a general note: the edit warring over his bloody weight needs to stop. I will be handing out blocks if it continues. Resolute 21:01, 11 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Resolute, keep in mind that several editors reverted his weight to 233, but only one keeps changing it to 218. I ceased early on in changing it to 233 to avoid an edit war, but have tried to have it discussed here for a consensus. Also, while weight isn't usually a significant issue, in Ovechkin's case it "carries more weight", if you'll excuse the pun. His weight gain, mostly muscle, was much talked about in the last few years as he's become one of the strongest, if not THE strongest forward in the league. BashBrannigan (talk) 21:43, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I warned two editors directly who were bordering on 3RR. This was just an additional general warning.  Ultimately, I'd say we just need to pick one number for now and wait until training camp.  The Caps will ultimately update their roster page with each player's weigh-ins at that time. Resolute 22:03, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

For those warring, I have read and heard numerous times that hockey players lose between 5-10 pounds during a game. So its quite possible that he was 7KG different from his start of season weight and his IIHF weight. That being said, standard is that we go by the weight from the league website of the league a player is in as being considered the most "accurate" to avoid this squabbles. -DJSasso (talk) 11:52, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from TChalk945, 19 October 2010
I am required for a class to make a change or addition to Wikipedia. I am a huge Washington Capitals fan, and a big fan of Ovechkin. I would just like to include his stats during the 2010 Winter Olympics in the International Play category. I will get my Information from this source:  thank you.

TChalk945 (talk) 19:14, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

Hello, and thanks for your interest. If you look closely, those statistics are already there, so I'm not sure what you are requesting Forseti11 (talk) 16:12, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


 * "TChalk945," it appears to me that you satisfied your assignment: You made a change to Wikipedia when you posted your comment on this page! 1995hoo (talk) 19:34, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Comments
Nice second photo. His ex-girlfriend must have posted that one... — Preceding unsigned comment added by CEKC (talk • contribs) 07:28, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Ovechkin website?
Does anyone know how to verify if www.ovie8.com is really Ovechkin's own website. He seems to have a twitter account which lists this website. But what makes me suspicious is that the ovie8.com doesn't have any personal commentary by Ovechkin the way most personal website would. If it's not his own website it should not be in the infobox. BashBrannigan (talk)
 * The website appears to be maintained by IMG, which is the company that represents Ovechkin. Resolute 01:59, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that seems to make sense. BashBrannigan (talk) 01:16, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Edit request on 30 December 2011
Citation needed can be replaced with this information: http://capitals.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=462124

Jspoke (talk) 00:52, 30 December 2011 (UTC)Julie Spokus

Jspoke (talk) 00:52, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
 * ❌ Please request edits to protected pages only when you've specified what exact text needs to be replaced, what the exact replacement is, and why the change needs to be made. -- Bryce  ( talk  &#124;  contribs ) 01:12, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

✅ found what the request was referring to and added provided reference. Cheers. --Mo Rock...Monstrous (leech44) 16:04, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Edit request on 19 January 2013
Ovechkin is now playing Right Wing.Hefd (talk) 23:53, 19 January 2013 (UTC)HefD

Hefd (talk) 23:53, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Changed, thanks for the notice. Kaiser matias (talk) 00:44, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Vandalism
Some of the information on this page was vandalized (weight and height both altered to intended joke values as was his draft pick). Changing information to published values. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drailing55 (talk • contribs) 01:48, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 18 February 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: No consensus to move. Opinion and evidence is divided on whether Alex is a true common name in reliable sources. Several suggest retaining the existing name, while others suggest a move. I don't see an overwhelming consensus one way or the other to be honest, after two listing periods. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 15:20, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Alexander Ovechkin → Alex Ovechkin – As per the discussion began below. Alex is the player's more commonly used name, see the player profiles linked below from the English language sources. WP:COMMONNAME. --Relisted. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 21:33, 26 February 2015 (UTC)  G  loss  17:45, 18 February 2015 (UTC) Is there a long standing consensus on why this article uses "Alexander" as the title instead of "Alex"? Seems pretty clear that he's used "Alex" for years now, that's the name on all of his biographies and stat pages and every news article about him says his more common name, Alex.  G loss  21:20, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Not to be a wiseass, but you realize 3 of the 5 stat pages on this article all use Alexander right? I haven't done an extensive search but doing a quick google search it seems to come up 50/50. Though it is hard to be sure because Google includes Alexander results in when you search just for Alex. But the Alex total is roughly twice what the Alexander total is which would indicate its about half and half. That being said if its so close I would default to their full name. There is a discussion in the archive of this talk page about it. Not an extensive one by any means but it did seem to result in the decision to use Alexander. Granted it was 5 years ago. -DJSasso (talk) 15:40, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Right, I did look at the discussion but it was very short and like you said, 5 years ago. 3 of the 5 stat pages on this article doesn't really sell it to me, because we could rack up tons of more stat pages if we really wanted, this article just has 5 listed. But the fact that the NHL's calls him "Alex" and every article on the Capital's website refers to him as "Alex", I just feel like per our Common Name policy, the article should use Alex instead.
 * Alex Ovechkin at hockeyreference.com
 * Alex Oveckin at ESPN.com
 * Alex Ovechkin at Yahoo.com
 * Alex Ovechkin on NBC's Rotoworld
 * Alex Ovechkin at SBNation.com
 * Alex Ovechkin at CBSSports.com
 * He uses "Alex" even on his personal twitter
 * My point is just that the 5 links provided on this article don't mean much when you look at all of his other profiles online and they're all listed this way. I could also list the extensive number of articles about him that all use Alex, but a google search will lead anyone who wants to check those out to them.  G loss  16:33, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * My quick summary is that older references from European websites use Alexander, while newer references from North America use Alex. 65.95.104.173 (talk) 18:49, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's what it looks like. Being in his 10th year playing in a North American hockey league which of course is where he's gained immense popularity for his game, I feel Alex makes more sense as his common name. I probably don't need to keep repeating that though :)  G loss  19:08, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Personally I would give it a few more years because we don't go based on recentism, we have to take the sum of all sources despite their age. And it appears in my analysis that they are about 50/50 right now. In a few years that might not be the case if the trend you mention continues. Either way both names end up here so readers will not be lost. -DJSasso (talk) 13:44, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
 * IMO, I think part of the hangup might be that Russian players don't typically shorten their names like North Americans do. Most others stick with Alexander/Aleksander, so mentally, it is easier to stick with Alexander. From my perspective, it feels right to stick with Alexander, even as I have no issue with the shortened form for Alex Galchenyuk, because he is American.   That being said, both his nhl.com profile and the Capitals media guide goes by Alex, so it is very hard to argue that this is not his common name in English. Resolute 15:15, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Right, that's what I'm getting at here. I'm absolutely not trying to be difficult, and I do understand where you're coming from Djsasso, but I find it very hard to ignore the common name policy. "Wikipedia prefers the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources) as such names will be the most recognizable and the most natural." As mentioned above, the English-language sources all go by the shortened Alex. So my concern isn't that readers won't be able to find the article, because of course they will with the proper redirects existing, it's just that this article doesn't follow our article titles policy.  G loss  17:39, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, for what it's worth, the articles for Slava Fetisov and Slava Kozlov both use their full name, even though you rarely heard either of them called Vyacheslav once they became household names via ESPN's Gary Thorne and Bill Clement (and others) while playing on the Red Army Line. Why not leave it as is and just put 'Alex' (with the quotation marks) in the boldfaced portion of his name in the lead?Ryecatcher773 (talk) 07:24, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
 * support WP:UCN/WP:UE that's his common name (or his nickname, Ov&eacute; ) -- 70.51.200.101 (talk) 05:30, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Support as nominator - WP:COMMONNAME exists for situations like this. Alexander Ovechkin will still redirect here, but as illustrated by the links above, Alex is much more commonly used.  G loss  06:32, 20 February 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Semi-protected edit request on 25 May 2018
The last bullet under the "NHL" subsection of the "Awards and Achievements" section uses incorrect grammar. The phrase currently reads: "Scored his 4th career Game 7 goal on 23 May 2018, handing Tampa Bay Lightning there first Game 7 loss at home in its 25-year history..." This phrase should be corrected to: "Scored his 4th career Game 7 goal on 23 May 2018, handing the Tampa Bay Lightning their first Game 7 loss at home in the franchise's 25-year history..." Jonsoff (talk) 19:48, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 20:02, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2018
Please change "Stanley Cup Finals" to "Stanley Cup Final" (no "s"). Thank you. Curatedlanguage (talk) 00:30, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * ❌ per this discussion there is consensus against no S. For more information, check out Talk:Stanley Cup Finals. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 02:04, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. L293D (☎ • ✎) 12:24, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2018
Change "Las Vegas Golden Knights" in Stanley Cup Section to "Vegas Golden Knights" ; Las is not in the team name 108.219.247.89 (talk) 10:46, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done L293D (☎ • ✎) 12:24, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2018
Error in "Player Profile" section, second to last sentence starts with "After after", change to "After".

Error in section "Stanley Cup Finals", second to last sentence says 17-year career, should be 13 as only his NHL time counts in this case. Should not include his time in the KHL Canellac (talk) 14:05, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yellow check.svg Partly done: first request is done but I counld'nt find a place that said 17-year career. L293D (☎</b> • <b style="color:#000">✎</b>) 15:25, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2018
Second to last paragraph in "Off the ice" section should the following text be appended: "On June 7, 2018, in an interview after winning his first Stanley Cup, it was made public that Ovechkin and his wife are expecting their first child." Canellac (talk) 14:11, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done <b style="color:#060">L293D</b> (<b style="color:#000">☎</b> • <b style="color:#000">✎</b>) 15:22, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Player profile (removed)

 * Finally winning a Stanley Cup, age, and experience may be tempering Ovechkin's intense self-focus. In an October 22, 2018 game against the Vancouver Canucks he passed on the easy chance to score a hat trick. Getting the puck late in the third period after Vancouver had pulled their goalie from the net, "instead of letting a shot rip" he passed to teammate T. J. Oshie. "To me that's a huge thing. . . He could have easily scored himself but it wasn't even a thought," head coach Todd Reirden said. "It doesn't bother him one bit and that's where you saw maybe a different player than maybe you saw three or four years ago that's not focused on individual stuff," he added. When even Oshie questioned his move, Ovechkin's response was charitable: "[He said] 'Why you pass me the puck?' But he was so wide open and I try to give him pass. Save mine for next time."
 * Perhaps a shorter version.Artaxerxes 12:54, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
 * The quote at the end by Ovechkin himself isn't necessary at all. It also needs general copyediting. And also, if something may be anything, I'm on the fence about if it should even be there. The only thing that has me half-convinced is Reirden's quote.  danny music editor  oops 18:03, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
 * How head coach Todd Reirden praised Ovechkin for "his leadership" on passing on his chance for a hat trick:
 * ""He could have easily got in the red and tried to score himself and it wasn’t even a thought,” Reirden said. “He passed right to Osh and Osh couldn’t go back to him and that’s the way it worked out. It doesn’t bother him one bit and I think that’s where you see a different player than maybe you saw three or four years ago that is not focused on individual stuff. He’s doing the right thing and he feels if you do the right thing for long enough, you’re going to get rewarded. We were benefactors of that last season with being able to win out at the end. He’s really got a lot of buy-in right now for doing the right thing. I think his leadership is really in the last probably year, year and a half has really gone to a new level.""


 * (outdent) I do applaud your efforts to adding to the article, but I feel it is getting bloated with extraneous things like the above, as well as a lot of detail you added regarding the Cup win. I'm hoping to go through it soon and kind of trim the whole article down a bit, if only to clean up the wording throughout. I pinged you just to let you know that, as well as solicit any further info you want to add, and let you know that your efforts are appreciated, though do consider recency bias. Kaiser matias (talk) 02:51, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the appreciation, and for the focus on the new material. Much can be improved with further editing. (Footnotes might be used for some of the details.)Artaxerxes 15:19, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Stanley Cup
Barry Trotz Moscow meeting with Ovechkin removed here:


 * In September 2017, after the summer wedding (where he danced shirtless), but before his honeymoon, coach and captain had a heart-to-heart in Moscow (where Trotz was visiting his son). The coach reminded the team captain that the 2017-18 Capitals would be less experienced and talented than in recent years. The Capitals simply could not afford another "lackluster" season from their Russian star like the previous one. Trotz recalls telling Ovechkin:

Artaxerxes 15:19, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
 * "The game’s changing, and a lot of people think your game is not going to translate and you can’t do anything anymore because you’re getting older. The game’s getting quicker; it’s a young man’s league, and you’re getting older. Just as a coach and just as a friend, knowing this game, how you’re going to have continued success is you’re going to have to become more of an athlete."

Early life
He certainly merits an early life/history section -- as other players of his stature have in their pages (SEE: Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretsky, etc.)--Artaxerxes 16:05, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I think "early life" is under "Personal and family" HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 21:08, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Goal-scoring record
"Alex Ovechkin is putting Wayne Gretzky’s untouchable goal-scoring record within reach" Artaxerxes 22:07, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Hat tricks
NHL active hat trick leader with 22; Malkin with 12; Crosby with 11 (as of 12.17.18). Back-to-back hat tricks:
 * "becomes just the 14th NHL player to record hat tricks in consecutive games more than once in his career."
 * "also performed the feat in October 2017."
 * "first new member of that elite club since Alex Kovalev, who had back-to-back hat tricks twice in 2001." Artaxerxes 16:54, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Variety of English
The article doesn't seem to consistently use one national variety of English as advised by MOS:ARTCON. I think it should use American English since his ties there are the strongest of any English-speaking nation.--SaskatchewanSenator (talk) 21:20, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I have no issue with that, so long as one system is used consistently. Kaiser matias (talk) 03:28, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

One of the Greatest Ice Hockey Players of all time.
I have no idea who keeps undoing my edit claiming he is one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time but in the most respectful way you are on crack if you think otherwise. He is a 3x MVP (more than crosby just saying) 3x ted lindsay award winner, a 12 time all star, a 9x maurice rocket award winner, a champion and mvp of the finals and is on pace to not only become the all time scorer but close to breaking numerous other scoring records as well. Go ahead he is not one of the greatest hockey players of all time STOP undoing the edit. MrHindsight (talk) 02:00, 7 November 2022 (UTC)


 * In 2017. the NHL named the 100 greatest players since 1917, with Ovechkin among them. Since then, he's added achievements and records. There's little doubt he's in the top 10 greats in history, and not just for scoring, as this NHL essay discusses. So for the lede, I think the article is understating Ovechkin if it doesn't say he is one of the greatest of all time. Zefr (talk) 04:47, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Correct and keep in mind that a year later he won a stanley cup, a conn smythe award, another 50 goal season and set a few records between now and then. I'm not arguing a top 10 I just want his wiki to acknowledge the fact that he is one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time. MrHindsight (talk) 05:45, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
 * It already says he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players of all time in the third paragraph. You can move that to the first paragraph if you want.--Killashaw (talk) 00:24, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

All of these statistics are already mentioned in that section of the article. I don't know myself whether it is truly necessary to mention that he is widely regarded as one of the all-time greatest players in general, but keep in mind, Wikipedia prefers to let things speak for themselves. All of those things you mention are truly impressive, but readers can draw their own conclusions from all of that information. It's not Wikipedia's place to "understate" or "overstate", it can only comment on what has happened and can be objectively proven. Please keep in mind that while Wikipedia does strive to be respectful towards the persons it describes, Wikipedia does not owe anyone anything, so it does not owe Ovechkin any sort of description as one of the all-time greatest in general. If consensus sees fit to include this bit, great, but if not, please do not interpret it as being disrespectful of him or his legacy. I myself have no real opinion on the matter, but I can see this is a touchy subject for some folks. Perhaps we can explore an alternative like our friend Killashaw mentioned, or even something else? Zeke, the Mad Horrorist  (Speak quickly) (Follow my trail) 21:27, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

"Player profile" section and block quotes
It seems like the "player profile" section is being swallowed up by a string of block quotes from other players and coaches. Is this really necessary or appropriate? It seems like it significantly interrupts the flow of the article's text. 1995hoo (talk) 21:03, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree. There are too many of them, they need some context and only one of them is long enough to meet MOS:BLOCKQUOTE.--Killashaw (talk) 18:31, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the MOS link. It confirms that block quotes should not be set in quotation marks (other than internal ones midstream, of course), which had been my gut feeling based on most style guides. I note several of the ones in question are set that way. If I have time I may clean those few up, but it will be this weekend at the earliest before I do anything about the larger issue involving the string of these things (unless someone else revises it first). One reason I wanted to raise it here is, frankly, that my observation has been that the editor who added them seems to take umbrage at having edits removed such that I wanted to throw the issue out there for discussion first (in the nature of CYA, I suppose, though not quite the same concept). 1995hoo (talk) 19:24, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

I've sought help with this matter at Wikipedia Talk:WikiProject Ice Hockey. 1995hoo (talk) 12:42, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

"some consider" language re goals record
"some consider" seems a bit too cautious and outdated, no? He's at 822 goals, 72 back. The narrative has rapidly shifted from if to when. Inspector Semenych (talk) 17:56, 7 August 2023 (UTC)


 * You make a good point, plus words like "some" are generally deprecated per MOS:WEASEL. The word "widely" earlier in the sentence accomplishes the same thing, so I rewrote the sentence to make the same point without the "some." 1995hoo (talk) 19:44, 7 August 2023 (UTC)