Growing up in Moscow, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin never thought he'd be a star. He'd just hoped he had what it took to stick around in the National Hockey League.
Fast forward 20 years, and he's not only stuck around but cemented himself as one of the league's greats, all while closing in on Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record.
"No," he told The Hockey News, shaking his head slightly in disbelief, adding, "Nobody thought like, 'I'm gonna be in this position I am right now."
Ovechkin sits at 887 career NHL goals after scoring against the San Jose Sharks to end Washington's three-game road trip in California, moving him within eight of Wayne Gretzky's record.
As he was reminded by reporters postgame that the record's getting closer, he stayed modest, shrugging it off and laughing once before stalking off.
"We'll see," he said.
For the 39-year-old, there is a lot of pride in the record, and he's been happy to get to share it with his family, wife and two young sons, Sergei and Ilya. It's a different thing, though, to be asked about it every two days, to face the continuous pressure of obtaining a feat that was thought to be insurmountable for so many years in the everchanging game of hockey.
That's why Ovechkin stays grounded when discussing it and doesn't bask in it, either.
“You just don’t try to think about it,” he said. “That’s the most important thing. Of course, you going to get some pressures from the media, from players, from the coaching staff, because they expect you to be good. But it is how it is. You have it one day, you have it another day, and you get used to it.”
Of course, he'll still celebrate ever goal like it's his first; that's simply because there's no other feeling like scoring a goal in the NHL. Ovechkin himself said there's nothing that compares, and didn't really have the words to describe what it's like to find twine at the highest level.
That said, as he continues his "GR8 Chase," he is maintaining his composure, and all the while, remembering his roots.
“Why you have to be selfish (about it)?” Ovechkin said. “My dad always told me like, ‘It doesn’t matter how good you are, how successful you are. You have to stay the same level that you came into the league. Without my teammates, without this organization, you never know what’s going to happen, right?"
