Harris’ previous Ovechkin pieces included smaller paintings when he won the Ted Lindsay Award, presented annually to the NHL’s “most outstanding player” voted by members of the NHLPA, in 2010, when he was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players during the League’s Centennial Celebration in 2017, after he scored his 600th goal on March 12, 2018, and after he scored his 767th goal to pass Jaromir Jagr for third in NHL in goals on March 15, 2022.
Harris did a larger painting of Ovechkin after he scored his 802nd goal to pass Gordie Howe for second in NHL history on Dec. 22, 2022. The 60-year-old considers the painting for Ovechkin’s 895th goal as a companion piece to the one to commemorate his 802nd.
A major difference with this piece is that Harris was commissioned to have it completed so it could be presented immediately after he broke the goals record. The paintings from his 600th, 767th and 802nd goals were done after Ovechkin reached the milestones to be presented at ceremonies later in those seasons.
Harris said he finished this painting in mid-March.
“When he scored the hat trick against Edmonton (on Feb. 23), I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s going to do this quicker than we think,’” said Harris, a former junior and university hockey player in Canada. “Doing the painting while he’s chasing the record is a different kind of stress than I’m used to in painting.”
