Alex Ovechkin still has a long way to go, but he’s steadily making progress, moving up the NHL’s all-time career goals list as he chases Wayne Gretzky’s record.
With eight goals in the last three games going into the All-Star Weekend, the Washington Capitals winger now has 34 goals this season, putting him in a two-way tie for second in the league with Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
But Ovechkin’s back-to-back hat tricks last week in his team’s wins over the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders also helped him climb into the top-10 on the all-time goals list. And with 692 career goals, he’s now tied for night all time with Steve Yzerman after passing by Mario Lemieux.
Still, Gretzky has 894 career goals. But at 34, Ovechkin is not showing any signs of slowing down as he’s easily on pace for his second straight season with at least 50 goals and ninth overall.
Scoring 202 more goals in his career seems plausible, and Gretzky told NHL.com Ovechkin catching his record “would be wonderful for the game”.
“I’m a big believer that records are made to be broken,” Gretzky told NHL.com on Friday. “What I accomplished, I’m very proud of. It’s hard to do what I did, and it’s really hard to do what he’s doing now. But there’s no question in my mind that he has a real legitimate chance of doing it. The two things that you need; you’ve got to stay healthy, and he’s proven that over his career. He plays hard and he stays healthy. And, secondly, you’ve got to be on a good team — and he plays on a good team.
“For my success, I had to play with good players. He plays with good players, and that obviously helps.”
Aside from a December slump when he only scored four times that month, Ovechkin has been on fire this season. He opened the season with an 11-goal October, scored nine times in November and already has 10 through January and he hasn’t played in a week.
He’s also suspended for one game for skipping the All-Star Weekend in St. Louis, despite being voted the Metropolitan Division captain. It’s the second straight year he’s skipped the festivities in favor of more rest.
But at the rate Ovechkin has been scoring this season, he’ll likely break his tie with Yzerman shortly and catch Mark Messier in No. 8 with 694 goals.
If he does that, the 700 club is right around the corner with Mike Gartner (708), Phil Esposito (717), Marcel Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741), Jaromir Jagr (766), Gordie Howe (801) and Gretzky ahead of him on the all-time goals list.
“From the day he came into the game, into the National Hockey League, we knew what he was,” Gretzky said. “He was just a hard-working guy who loved to score goals. Everybody loves to score goals. The two, three guys that I always remembered seemed to love it more than anybody were Brett Hull, Mike Bossy and Luc Robitaille, and Alex has that fire. He gets around the net and he just loves to score.”
Ovechkin and the Capitals are at the top of the Eastern Conference with a one-point advantage over the Boston Bruins. With the team’s captain suspended for Monday’s game against Montreal, he’ll be back on the ice for Wednesday’s home game against Nashville.
