PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

The moment was majestic and vintage Alexander Ovechkin.

It wasn’t a one-timer from the left face-off circle that bested Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 career goals on Sunday afternoon, but it was close enough.

Ovechkin collected the puck and cradled it for a heartbeat before making history, before launching another Russian Rocket and breaking a Gretzky record that was once considered unbreakable by many, including Ovechkin.

The moment was sublime, and the NHL knew what needed to happen next on Long Island.

The game between Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders was stopped at 7:26 of the second period and an immediate on-ice ceremony was staged to commemorate the occasion, the breaking of what The Athletic described as “hockey’s most heralded record.”

Gretzky was there to congratulate Ovechkin, as was NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The Islanders lined up and one by one shook Ovechkin’s hand after he had taken a face-first dive onto the ice and eventually emerged from the bottom of a pile of delirious Capitals.

A video tribute played on the scoreboard, and Ovechkin addressed the crowd in what for him was a road arena.

It was, as Gretzky later assessed it, not just a great day for hockey but a great day for sport.

If only the significance could be appropriately appreciated beyond the immediate aftermath.

Instead, reaction has included Penguins fans predictably taking to social media with their hollow “Yeah, but Sid’s still better” arguments.

These are people who clearly love Sidney Crosby and star gazing — the Pittsburgh Uber Alles crowd — much more than they love hockey. (At this writing, Crosby has 623 career goals in his 20-years career.)

But some in the hockey media, likewise, haven’t been immune to embarrassing themselves by publicly contemplating whether 895 career goals makes Ovechkin the best goal scorer of all time or merely the player who has scored the most goals.

The number speaks for itself.

All you have to do is count the pucks.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has done the math.

Sullivan assessed Ovechkin’s accomplishment as “remarkable” a couple of days after the fact.

“He’s arguably the greatest goal scorer of all-time,” Sullivan acknowledged. “This milestone certainly suggests it.”

Why in the name of Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Brett Hull or Jaromir Jagr is that so difficult for some to grasp?

Sullivan also indirectly addressed the Ovechkin-Crosby debate by applying perspective and context to who Ovechkin and Crosby are along with what they’ve both achieved.

“When you look at what he and Sid have done for the NHL and hockey in general, it reminds me in a lot of ways what Larry Bird and Magic [Johnson] did for the NBA,” Sullivan maintained. “Not only were they great players but they had a certain charisma about them and the way they carried themselves, how they’re ambassadors for the game.

“They just advance the game and they represent a lot of what’s right about our game. They’re likeable guys. You want to root for them.”

In the name of Gretzky and Gordie Howe, isn’t that enough?

Hockey’s “Mount Rushmore,” an admittedly subjective designation at best, has traditionally been accepted by including Gretzky, Howe, Bobby Orr and Lemieux.

They remain and might always be the game’s true immortals.

But Ovechkin and Crosby have become, as Sullivan so accurately portrayed them, the NHL’s Magic and Bird on skates.

Are you not entertained?

Neither player has slowed down just yet, which means the legacies of both will likely continue to grow.

Ovechkin could yet score 1,000 goals.

And Crosby might conceivably amass 2,000 points.

Whether they do or they don’t, there’s a spot in hockey history for both.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.