Alex Ovechkin added former Washington Capitals teammate Ilya Samsonov to his list of goalies he’s scored on earlier this season. Samsonov, distinguished Ovi goalie no. 177, had been perfect in three prior games against Ovechkin until Washington made their way west to Vegas on November 17.
Ovechkin beat Samsonov twice in the Capitals’ 5-2 victory, capping off his 31st career hat trick with an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Samsonov recently spoke with Championat’s Petr Tereshchenkov about the game and how he’d like to stay away from future Ovechkin-related history.
“The hat trick, yes, I did [allow part of it],” Samsonov said to Championat as translated by Yandex Translate. “One is empty, one is a ricochet off the skate. So I also made history, helped a little bit. Someone said, like Petya Kochetkov, that the main thing is not to miss the record-breaking one. Otherwise, I’ll spend my whole life watching on all channels.”
Unless Vegas deals Samsonov before the March 7 trade deadline, the 27-year-old backstop is safe not only from more Ovechkin goals but his friend’s fun-loving trash talk until next season.
“Sanya (Ovechkin), by the way, usually also shouts to all our goalkeepers: ‘Now I’ll f— you.’ And everything else like that,” Samsonov said. “But it doesn’t bother me.”
Ovechkin’s vulgarity has become a constant in games he plays against Samsonov and other Russian goaltenders. The former Toronto Maple Leafs netminder once joked that his old teammates said “lots of bad words” to him in his first homecoming game against the Capitals during the 2022-23 campaign.
Pyotr Kochetkov, the Carolina Hurricanes goalie Samsonov mentions, had a similar experience with Ovechkin earlier this season. “Every time he tell me lots of bad words,” Kochetkov said in early November. “He scored me, ‘I score you! I score you!’ All Russians do this. It’s no problem for me.”
Ovechkin has scored 13 more goals since taking on Samsonov in Vegas, leaving him with 26 goals in 39 games this season. The 0.67 goal-per-game rate sees Ovechkin set to surpass Gretzky on April 12 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with three games remaining in the 2024-25 regular season.
The 39-year-old winger went into the 4 Nations Face-Off break with nine points (4g, 5a) in his last five games. Ovechkin came out of a similar break last season and notched 23 goals in his last 36 games. He needs to score 16 goals in his last 27 games this year.
