You get to a certain age, and it occurs to you how old you are.
Things you use to mark time − I saw Wayne Gretzky when he was 20, and I saw Alexander Ovechkin when he was 20 − can lead to ulcers.
Things you once thought to be sacrosanct − no one will ever touch Gretzky's magic numbers, such as his career goal total of 894 − have a "get off my lawn" quality.
It was a quirk of the schedule that I was in the building for Ovechkin's debut on Oct. 5, 2005. The Washington Capitals' opponent that night was the Blue Jackets. It was the season opener. There was a buzz within the MCI Center (now Capital One Arena) about this Russian kid who just a few months before was the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft.
First shift of the game, Ovechkin comes flying in on the forecheck and hits Jackets defenseman Radoslav Suchy hard enough to dislodge a partition. Suchy looked around for a license plate. A pane of plexiglass tipped over onto the ice and clipped Suchy's defensive partner, Adam Foote, in the shoulder. The game was halted to make repairs and, while some dude went to fetch the stepladder, the buzz increased in amplitude.
Ovechkin had two goals in his debut. They came 4 minutes, 30 seconds apart in the second period. The first was a one-timer from the top of the slot. The second was a quick little snapper from the bottom of the left circle, just a few feet from the left-dot area that would come to be known as his office. Jackets goaltender Pascal Leclaire had no shot at stopping either of these Ovi offerings. The Jackets lost 3-2.
Twenty years later, in his 1,487th game, Ovechkin did it. He got career goal No. 895 Sunday. It came in the second period of a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders. Gretzky was there to shake his hand.
Gretzky was regressing as he got deep into his 30s. He had nine goals in 70 games during his last season, 1998-99 with the New York Rangers. He retired at age 38 with 894 goals in 1,487 games.
In exactly the same number of games, The Great 8 scored one more goal than the Great One. The thing is, Ovechkin doesn't seem to be slowing down. This season, he has 42 goals in 61 games. He'll turn 40 on Sept. 17.
For anyone who saw Gretzky play in the 1980s, what Ovechkin has done, and continues to do, was once unfathomable.
"Right," said John Buccigross, the all-round hockey voice at ESPN. "And (Greztky) played in the best era to score goals: 1977-93, the league was consistently prolific, and it was not that way when Ovechkin played. In fact, this year is a down year. We're only going to have one 50-goal scorer − and here's (Ovechkin), third in the league. He should get Hart Trophy votes for how he has inspired his team to a possible Presidents' Trophy."
