Not everyone can keep pace with greatness. And while Alex Ovechkin looks to conclude his 20-year chase of Wayne Gretzky’s 894 career goals, he knows he hasn’t scaled hockey’s heights alone. Over the years he’s skated with a wide array of teammates on his line, from one-night pairings to long-term situations. And just like every bird is not meant to soar with the eagles, not every player has the right stuff to skate on the same line as Ovi.

“It takes a very smart player to play with Alex Ovechkin. It takes a player with great vision,” longtime Capitals play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati said. “It’s a high-hockey IQ that needs to happen. If you’re going to play well with him, you better have a great understanding of the offensive game.”

That man for many years was Nicklas Backstrom, who assisted on 284 of Ovi’s 724 regular season goals from 2007-23. That’s roughly 39% of Ovechkin’s total in that stretch.

“Nicklas always knew with his vision and his touch, it was a matter of finding the right spot where Alex would be,” Beninati said. “Alex was always demanding of the puck, and ‘please make it a nice flat pass’. Nowadays, Dylan Strome is always hearing the echoes of Ovechkin’s voice in the locker room, ‘Nice and flat! gimme that pass nice and flat!’”

Strome has been Ovechkin’s primary center this season and has assisted on 18 of Ovi’s first 38 goals thus far. He hasn’t shrunk from the challenge.

“Every game brings a new challenge, and it’s a chance for history. So we’re excited,” Strome said after assisting on Ovechkin’s 891st career goal Tuesday in Boston. “It’s been a lot of fun to be along for the ride for this couple of years and it’s only going to get better.”

But lines are not set in stone, and Strome hasn’t been the only forward to skate with Ovi this season. Sometimes adjustments are made game to game, while sometimes swaps are by the period or the shift.

“I look early in games to see what the chemistry looks like with his line. It’s been Stromer (Dylan Strome at center) for the most part, but I try to A: look as a coach early on to see what that looks like. Are they able to take an O-zone (offensive zone) draw and stay there?” coach Spencer Carbery said before Sunday’s game with Buffalo. “And then also if I need to get him out there with potentially (Pierre-Luc) Dubois, to give teams matchup-wise a different look but also to give him a different centerman.”

Case in point: Ovechkin started Tuesday’s game on the same line as Pierre-Luc Dubois before scoring while skating with Strome. Ovechkin turns 40 this September, meaning that more than a few potential linemates are a lot younger than he is.

“He was an idol of mine. I remember the first training camp I had with him. I was just starstruck,” Connor McMichael said. “It was one of the coolest moments. It was kind of my ‘welcome to the NHL moment’, skating with him for the first time in practice.”

But as the young forward learned, one has to move quickly from kid to contributor. “You just find him around the ice,” McMichael said. “And usually, good things are going to happen when you find him for that one-timer.”

Players like Andrew Mangiapane quickly learn the challenges and benefits of being on Ovi’s line.

“They (opposing teams) don’t always give him a lot of time and space, so you don’t want to force too many plays into him,” Mangiapane said. “I feel like they’re always maybe one or two steps closer to him when they’re on the ice, so that maybe gives you a little more time or space to work with.”

Being on Ovechkin’s line can be career-changing for young players breaking into the league, offseason acquisitions looking to prove themselves in new surroundings or players looking to become more than just bruisers.

“It was a big point in my career when I was given the chance to go up, play on the first line with him, and learn how to play in the top six and learn how to play offensively,” Tom Wilson said. “He’s been so great to me.”

That line combination paid dividends for the player and the team.

“I didn’t think at the time I knew it was going to be a long-term thing; it was like, ‘OK, I have one game with him, and I’ve got to be doing the best job I can.’ And then it was two games,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to be on your game, you’ve got to be getting him the puck, you’ve got to be creating offense.”

The challenges of skating with Ovechkin have taken added weight this month as the forward zeros in on the NHL career goals record.

“It’s funny because they’re going to be attached to history. One of them is, two of them maybe, when you have who’s going to assist on a goal like that?” Capitals Radio Network play-by-play announcer John Walton said. “And history for all-time. It’s going to be replayed over and over and over and over again.”

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