“I hope his legs will be torn off and he won’t succeed,” Eduard Zakharchenko told Ukrainian media last week
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian national hockey team goalie Eduard Zakharchenko. © Global Look Press / Artur Widak
The goaltender of the Ukrainian national hockey team, Eduard Zakharchenko, wished that Russian star Alexander Ovechkin would be maimed before he could break the National Hockey League’s all-time scoring record.
The Washington Capitals forward tied the record last Saturday in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks before breaking it the next day on the road against the New York Islanders.
A day before the game against the Blackhawks, Zakharchenko spoke to Ukrainian news outlet Sport24ua. Asked about Ovechkin, the goalie smiled and said he hoped “his legs will be torn off and he won’t succeed.”
Zakharchenko went on to say that Ovechkin “does not deserve the admiration of the public,” pointing to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. He acknowledged, however, that he was following Ovechkin’s pursuit of the record, as were other members of the Ukrainian national team.
“In any case, it’s a world record. But I wouldn’t want [Ovechkin] to [succeed]. I’m completely satisfied with Gretzky,” he said.
Ovechkin is a three-time world champion with the Russian national team and took home the 2018 Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals, which he has spent his entire NHL career with.
Gretzky, who is widely regarded as the greatest hockey player of all time, needed 1,487 games to tally 894 goals. Ovechkin tied the record in his 1,486th game and broke it in the next.
After breaking the record, Ovechkin thanked his teammates, coaches, and fans. “All of you fans, all the world, Russia… We did it boys, we did it!” he said.
Zakharchenko was born in the Russian city of Vladivostok before later moving to Ukraine with his family. He started his adult hockey career in Russia’s third league. In 2017, he was suspended from all competition by the International Ice Hockey Federation over allegations of match-fixing in a game Ukraine played against South Korea at the World Championship. Ukraine’s hockey federation banned him for life.
He was later pardoned in Ukraine after his international ban expired and re-joined the national team in 2021.