2024-25 NHL regular season thread

Last night was the classic "you can't sustain this sort of pace forever" kind of game for the Caps. A little sleepy, but Calgary pounced. Came away impressed by the Flames in that one.

Starting to get a little bummed that Joe Beninati -- who has called like 90 percent of Ovechkin's goals -- probably won't get to call 895. There's no way the league will let the record be broken on Monumental Sports Network. If he gets within three, every game will be moved to national broadcast, which makes total sense, but still.

 

If the chase lingers into April (and it may not at this rate) and the division title and top seed in the East are secured, do you think the Caps sit Ovechkin if he's tied or one away going into a road game? They play a road b2b against the Bruins & Hurricanes Apr. 1-2 and are home to face the Blackhawks on Apr. 4 before visiting the Islanders on Apr. 6 and hosting the Hurricanes on Apr. 10. Have to think they'd love to get that at home if at all possible.

 

It makes sense in theory, but he's never been one just to sit for rest/load management. He also missed six-plus weeks in the middle of the year, plus the two-week 4 Nations break, so he's fresher than usual.

 

Makes sense. The only thing I can think of that's close to this is Pete Rose going for the hit record. I think he was four hits away from tying Cobb going into the final game of a road trip and got...four hits. Of course, trying to position a guy to get a record-breaking hit at home is a little easier than trying to position a guy to score a record-breaking goal at home.

 

Actually you can position a guy to hit homer no. 756 at home too! Bonds tied Henry Aaron on the next-to-last game of a road trip and sat out the finale before breaking it at home.

 

Finishing with four of six on the road (actually six of nine on the road in April) is not ideal for this. Especially because Ovechkin tends to score in bunches. Like, he's not going to back off an empty netter in Columbus on 4/12 to try to score at home on 4/13. Just not his nature.

 

Well, as I've noted, the invite to show your punk ass on Long Island stands! The get-in price for Apr. 6 right now is $90 plus fees. If you want to see the deadass Isles against the Wild two nights earlier, it's a mere $19.

 

Makes me think of some other unbreakable records ... like Emmitt Smith's 18,355 all-time rushing yards. The nature of the position now just isn't going to allow it to happen. The only active player in the top 20 is Derrick Henry, and he's 7,003 yards behind. He needs like four more 1,800 yard seasons to get there, which is pretty unlikely now that he's 31.

 

Yeah, Ovechkin has a chance to put this one in that stratosphere. Even if he cools off after breaking the record, he's still likely going to be good for 35 goals next year. That puts him in the 930s and there's no guarantee he just packs it in after that. I suppose some of the kids have a shot, but Leon Draisaitl would only be around 800 at age 39 if he has 10 more seasons like his first 10 seasons. Auston Matthews would also be around 800 at age 36 with nine more seasons like his first nine seasons. Connor McDavid would be around 750 at age 38 with 10 more seasons like his first nine seasons. So that means a.) being as great as they've been for another decade and then b.) having a few more terrific years after that. Bonkers.

 

Didn’t the Braves sit Aaron the opening road trip of 1974 so he could break the record at Atlanta-Fulton County? In fairness, the Braves needed every dollar of revenue they could scrape up to keep the lights on then.

 

Aaron entered the 1973 season with 713 homers and the Braves were going to sit him for the opening series in Cincinnati before they returned to Atlanta. But commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered them to use him the way they had the previous year -- playing in two of every three games. He hit 714 on opening day, sat out the next game and played seven innings in the last one in Cincy (going 0-f0r-3 with two strikeouts). Then he hit 715 in the Braves' first home game.

 

3 changes so far, only 1 shifted to ABC only, the other 2 keep the local channel
https://awfulannouncing.com/nhl/alexander-ovechkin-goal-record-capitals-schedule-change.html