For Major League Baseball, it's Cy Young's 511 pitching wins or Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak that are often cited as unbreakable records.
For the NFL, it's the 1972 Miami Dolphins' 17-0 Super Bowl season.
For the NBA, it's Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game during a 1961-62 season when he averaged 50.4.
And for the NHL, it's Wayne Gretzky's 894 career goals, 1,963 assists and 2,857 points.
Erie Otters captain Carey Terrance was born in 2005, six years after Gretzky's last shift.
However, even the native of remote Akwesasne, New York, was conscious of the iconic Hall of Famer even as an elementary school student.
"You'd get all those Upper Deck cards as a little kid," Terrance said. "You'd see Gretzky's (card) with all those goals and points and think, 'No way anyone can break this guy's records. No way.'
"It's pretty crazy that in today's game, there's a guy that's actually closing in on (Gretzky's goal record), and probably will break it."
That "guy" is Alex Ovechkin, whom the Washington Capitals chose with the No. 1 overall pick for the NHL's draft in 2004. Since then, the Russian forward has compiled 879 goals.
Ovechkin, 39, is stalled at that amount until at least Feb. 22. That's when the league ends its current hiatus for the 4 Nations Face-Off, an international tournament being held in Montreal and Boston.
When Washington resumes play, so will Ovechkin's quest to score the next 16 goals in his 20-year NHL career.
Should that happen before April 17, the end of the Capitals' regular season, he'd surpass Gretzky's once-deemed unattainable total of 894 over the same time span.
"Good for him," Erie center Martin Misiak said. "Records are there to be broken. Guess we'll see if he does it this season or next season."
'Caused a lot of stress'
Otters forward Sam Alfano was born in 2004, the same year Washington drafted Ovechkin.
Alfano grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. Despite its proximity to Toronto, though, he was a Pittsburgh Penguins fan and not of the nearby Maple Leafs as he came of age.
Alfano was five when Pittsburgh won the 2009 Stanley Cup final, and a teen by the end of the franchise's 2016-17 championships.
Pittsburgh and Washington met at some point in each of those three playoff years.
In each instance, the Penguins prevailed despite Ovechkin's notable presence.
"Watching 'Ovi' over the years, he's caused me a lot of stress as a Penguins fan," Alfano said. "But now, I'm amazed by him and what he's been able to do."
"He's the best goal scorer in history, whether he breaks (Gretzky's record) or not."
