Alex Ovechkin is 42 goals away from becoming the NHL’s all-time leading scorer, and the bid to acquire Wayne Gretzky has become one of the biggest stories in hockey.
But for his mother, Tatyana Ovechkina, all the hype and coverage surrounding his goalscoring record was humdrum.
“Personally, [talk about the goals record] “Not at all,” Ovechkina told Match TV’s Pavel Lysenkov in one of her first major interviews since her husband’s tragic death in February 2023. Her comments came at the recent OviCup gala match in Moscow and have been translated by Google Translate.
“Sasha just plays hockey and doesn’t worry about personal statistics,” the two-time Olympic gold medalist in basketball added, “and the puck comes flying and doesn’t go anywhere. We all know Sasha loves to score and knows how to score. With God’s help, he’ll be successful.”
Ovechkin himself isn’t sure how to answer all the questions about the chase, as he’s been asked so many times over the past few years. “He doesn’t like to get ahead of himself,” his wife, Nastya Ovechkina, told Sports Express last year. “He always says, ‘You won’t know until you live and see.'”
In the past, his mother, Tatiana, would often stay up late to watch Capitals games on TV in Russia, including the night Ovi passed Gordie Howe in December 2022 for second-most points of all time.
Ovechkina returned to Washington shortly after the death of Mikhail Ovechkin and now appears to be back in Russia full-time.
In an interview, she told Lysenkov that she believed her son thrived on the love and affection of those closest to him.
“For him, his family is like an oasis,” Ovechkina says. “He feels at home, and sometimes Sasha can fly on vacation somewhere in Turkey, play volleyball with friends and soak up the sun. He’s not in any trouble there.”
Ovechkin recently said he wanted to play his final professional games with Dynamo Moscow of the KHL. The Great Eight came through Dynamo’s academy and played for the club in the Russian Super League before coming to North America and winning the Gagarin Cup with the club in 2013 during the NHL’s mid-season lockout.
“I would say that it’s his decision,” Ovechkina said. “Sasha will think about when and how he wants to make a turn in his life, whether it’s necessary for him or not. I will definitely not influence this, believe me.”
Ovechkina played for and later coached the Dynamo women’s basketball team for nearly 20 years, and was there to celebrate the club’s recent 100th anniversary.
“100 years is a wonderful day. Congratulations!” she told Metaratings.ru in April. “I thank God that the club is alive and exists. This is a great happiness for me personally. I wish Dynamo prosperity and that the club will continue to exist for a long time to come.”