Darren Pang made what he thought was an innocuous comment about Alex Ovechkin during Wednesday’s TNT broadcast of the Rangers-Capitals game.
He awoke Thursday morning surprised he had sparked outrage in the nation’s capital.
During the first period of a 3-2 Capitals overtime win at MSG, Pang made the point that while Ovechkin has most often scored goals from his “office” near the hash marks in the left circle, the coaches have moved the 39-year-old around the ice this season as he chases Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goal-scoring record.
Ovechkin scored his 885th career goal in the third period to tie the game and move within nine of tying Gretzky.
“I give Spencer Carbery and his coaching staff an awful lot of credit,” said Pang, the former Blackhawks goalie and longtime broadcaster. “We all know that Alex Ovechkin’s been a bit of a one-trick pony throughout his NHL career, but that has not been the case [this season].”
The analysis was accompanied by a video package showing Ovechkin scoring goals from different parts of the ice, but some viewers were hyper focused on the “one-trick pony” line.
"Ovechkin been a one trick pony through his career." — @Panger40
— ???????????????????? ????????????????️ (@jarehouse) March 6, 2025
Praying you guys don't get to call goal #895 https://t.co/e8VEyRwaJr pic.twitter.com/OoS89kbWKi
That included the Capitals social media department, which fired off a spicy tweet when posting video of Ovechkin’s goal on X.
“One trick pony scores his 885th career goal and records his 1,599th career point,” the Capitals’ post read.
One trick pony scores his 885th career goal and records his 1,599th career point#ALLCAPS | @BlueHalo pic.twitter.com/ncgg39AWRe
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 6, 2025
John Auville, one of the hosts of “The Sports Junkies” on 106.7 FM in D.C., posted a GIF of Pang and called him “Public enemy #1 in DC right now.”
Pang then appeared on the radio show Thursday morning, saying he hadn’t been aware of any outrage the night before.
“What I was alluding to last night was how impressed I was with how flexible he’s been and that he’s not scoring from that same area all the time,” Pang said, adding that his comment was “absolutely” taken the wrong way.
Ovechkin has 32 goals and 17 assists in 46 games this season and has helped lead Washington to the best record in the Eastern Conference at 40-14-8 (88 points.)
He’s one point away from becoming the 11th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 career points, and he has 20 games left this season to try to break Gretzky’s goals record.