Budweiser gifts 28 goalies, including three former Flyers, beer for shutting out Alex Ovechkin

After 20 seasons of nightmares and sunburns caused by the goal light going off, it’s fair to say that NHL goalies aren’t the biggest fans of Alex Ovechkin.

Firing an NHL-record 895 pucks by a record 183 netminders will earn you more than a few enemies among the goaltenders’ union — although New York Islanders netminder and fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin seemed to wear the distinction of surrendering No. 895 on Sunday as a badge of honor.

Sorokin and Ovechkin met after the game, with the goaltender gifting Ovechkin his stick — presumably for the hockey museum Ovechkin plans to open in Moscow — and Ovechkin in return signing some pucks for him. When Sorokin was asked about Ovechkin jokingly thanking him for letting him score the record-breaker, he giggled back: “It’s OK, any time.”

» READ MORE: ‘Hope and pray’: Flyers goalies past and present discuss trying to stop Alex Ovechkin

But while a lot of the focus, and rightfully so, has been on “The Great 8’s” season-long chase of Wayne Gretzky and his once seemingly unbreakable record, Budweiser Canada decided to throw a bone — or rather a beer — to the exclusive club of masked men who have avoided Alexander the Great’s wrath.

Budweiser recently sent all 28 goalies who faced Ovechkin during their careers but did not allow him to score a commemorative #KingofZero beer can. Each can is inscribed with the words “Zero of 895″ and below denotes the number of career saves that goalie made on Ovechkin without allowing a goal. Budweiser Zero is an alcohol-free brew.

The list of 28 names is really something, with recipients ranging from potential Hall of Famer Curtis Joseph to Ovechkin teammate Vítek Vaněček to Colorado rookie Trent Miner, who has started only one NHL game. Vaněček, currently of the Florida Panthers, leads the way with 19 saves without being scored upon while Miner and Montreal Canadiens rookie Jakub Dobeš turned away one solitary effort each from Ovie to earn their respective beers.

The Ghosts of Flyers Goalies Past are also well represented as Rob Zepp (10 saves), Michal Neuvirth (seven saves), and Anthony Stolarz (four saves) are all proud members of the Ovie shutout club. Neuvirth, like Vaněček, must have gotten the book on No. 8 while they were teammates in Washington. Brian Boucher, Marty Biron, Sam Ersson, and Ivan Fedotov didn’t make the list, as each of them recalled their Ovechkin horror stories to The Inquirer last month.

The “King of Zero” marketing maneuver is not the first of its kind from the beer company. In 2020, Budweiser sent 644 personalized bottles of beer to the 160 goalkeepers whom soccer star Lionel Messi had scored on in recognition of his breaking Spanish club Barcelona’s goals record with 644.

While the hockey goalies can hold their heads up a little higher for being recognized for not conceding goals, it is worth mentioning that the soccer goalies received a bottle of beer for every goal they conceded to the eight-time Balon d’Or winner. Given Diego Alves conceded 21 goals to Messi and received 21 beers, let’s call him the grand winner.

Beer is a perfect tribute to Ovechkin, who went viral for his post-Stanley Cup celebrations in 2018, including a quick dip and inebriated snow angel in the fountain at the Georgetown Waterfront. This is also a guy who last offseason told a Russian media outlet that “I like the taste of beer,” and has been seen enjoying a few cold ones along the way to history this season.

While Ovechkin’s record and celebratory beers are well deserved, kudos to Budweiser for realizing that the real accomplishment here is not surrendering a goal to a guy who has scored more than anybody before him and maybe anyone to come after him.

Oh, and let’s pour some beer out for the 183 guys who weren’t as lucky ...