The celebration of hockey’s greatest goal scorer has a local tie.
Ottawa area artist Tony Harris was hired by the National Hockey League to create a painting to commemorate Washington Capital’s forward Alexander Ovechkin scoring his 895th goal in the league.
The goal, scored against the New York Islanders on Sunday afternoon, put Ovechkin into first place on the league’s all-time goal scorer’s list, passing Wayne Gretzky who previously held the title with 894.
Harris said he had a history with both the NHL and the Washington Capitals, having painted and commemorated other historic moments and players over the years, and the league asked him to submit ideas for what the new painting would look like.
Once it was approved, Harris said it took over 40 days from beginning to end to put together.
As for being a part of NHL history, Harris tells Moose FM that he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.
“I think that one of the toughest things about being an artist is that you have to leave it to other people to sort of say where you are and what it is that your art means to other people.”
Harris adds that he painted the picture as a companion piece to another he created that was given to Ovechkin for passing Gordie Howe on the all-time goal scoring list.
