Was Auston Matthews’ amazing goal better than Alex Ovechkin’s iconic goal?

Hello.

Auston Matthews, the Maple Leafs wunderkind and likely NHL Rookie of the Year (sorry, Patrik Laine fans), scored a truly memorable goal last night. You should go watch it. It’s probably the best of the season!

But is it better than the best goal of the last decade, scored by Alex Ovechkin in 2006? Some Leafs fans might try to convince you of that forever this week. After all, they seem kind of similar.

So let’s compare them in five totally important categories and settle this question before Twitter relationships between thousands of Canadian and American hockey fans are ruined forever.

Or, at least, redirect that venom at my inbox for a day. You’re welcome. Here’s my right analysis, again.

Ovechkin’s 2005-06 season was his first in the NHL. He finished third in NHL scoring that year ... with 52 goals and 106 points. We’ll continue when you finish shaking your head in disbelief.

...

Yeah. By the way, he finished behind Joe Thornton (125 points) and Jaromir Jagr (123 points). Different era.

At the time of “The Goal,” the 20-year-old Ovechkin had already hit the 30-goal mark. And nobody was watching as the Capitals played in Phoenix that night; both teams were well out of the playoff race by that point. This was a year when the six worst NHL teams were St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, Boston, and Columbus. Weird.

Anyway, Ovechkin’s goal came at the tail end of a 6-1 beatdown win by the Caps. Very little was on the line.

Not so for Matthews: His Maple Leafs were in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race in need of a strong win on the road in Carolina. And Matthews is a 19-year-old rookie, looking to become one of the rare 40-goal rookies in NHL history. A lot of eyes were on him for this one.

The Nod goes to ... Matthews.

Matthews 1, Ovechkin 0

Two things tip the balance in Ovi’s favor here, in my CORRECT opinion.

First, he had a defender all over him. All over his face. Paul Mara did everything right here; most youngsters wouldn’t be able to fight through a shove like that. Ovi just followed the direction of the shove. These are all technical hockey terms.

Oh, and there’s the fact that he FELL DOWN ONTO HIS BACK.

Meanwhile, Matthews had a full stride ahead of his defender before he got tripped at the last minute. The whole “oh hell, my momentum is going in so many different directions” factor is nonexistent.

Now, is flicking your wrist five-hole while your torso is a pretzel difficult? Of course. But Ovechkin’s pretzel is [Ed. note: Pat searched for pretzel shapes to complete a pretzel analogy and got hungry for pretzels. He got lost in a mall trying to find an Auntie Anne’s and forgot to complete the analogy. We apretzeliz—er, apologize for the delay.]

It’s pretzels.

Not even a competition, Leafs fans. Stop it.

Nod goes to ... Ovechkin.

Matthews 1, Ovechkin 1

This is a tough category.

On one hand, you have Alexander Ovechkin scoring A) on his backhand, B) while upside down, and C) landing the barrel roll right as the puck enters the net.

You can’t get much smoother on a ridiculously chaotic goal.

But then there’s this image of Matthews sliding through the crease like a baserunner swiping home plate on a suicide squeeze in the ninth inning.

There’s something inherently cool about that.

The nod goes to ... Ovechkin. I’m sorry. The ridiculousness and sheer Ovi-ness of that decade-old goal is still too hard to beat. There’s a reason nobody’s ever scored a goal quite like that, and never will.

Ovechkin 2, Matthews 1

Ovechkin scored on Brian Boucher while beating a one-on-one matchup with Paul Mara. Matthews had to outrun Phillip Di Giuseppe and beat Cam Ward five-hole.

Well. Not exactly beating Scott Stevens and Martin Brodeur.

But Don Cherry just TwitLonger-d me and I think he mentioned somewhere in there that Cam Ward won a Stanley Cup before. I can’t tell.

The nod goes to ... Matthews. Barely.

Ovechkin 2, Matthews 2

Technically, Ovechkin had a gaping net to shoot at thanks to whatever Boucher was doing.

But I think you create your own luck.

I choose ... to ignore this section!

On one hand, this is the most emotion anyone’s ever seen out of Auston Matthews.

On the other, Ovi.

No contest. The nod goes to ... Ovechkin.

Final score: Ovechkin 3, Matthews 2