Alex Ovechkin is a hat trick away from The Record

Jesse Campigotto · CBC Sports

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 4:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

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Alex Ovechkin scored his 892nd career regular-season extremity past nighttime successful the Washington Capitals' 5-1 nonaccomplishment astatine Carolina. That puts him conscionable 3 distant from breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time NHL record, which No. 99 has held for 31 years.

Washington has conscionable 7 games near connected its schedule, but Ovechkin seems very  determined to not hold until adjacent play to drawback the record. Last night's goal, connected (what else?) a one-timer from the near ellipse during a Caps powerplay, was his sixth successful his past 9 games, and he's present scored successful 3 straight.

With 39 goals connected the season, the 39-year-old Russian is tied for 3rd connected the NHL leaderboard contempt missing astir six weeks with a breached leg. Based connected his scoring gait for some this play and his full career, Ovechkin is present projected to surpass Gretzky connected April 13 astatine location against Columbus, with 2 games to spare.

It's adjacent rather imaginable that he'll ain the grounds earlier the week is out. On Friday night, Washington hosts lowly Chicago, which has surrendered much goals this play than each squad but San Jose. On Sunday afternoon, the Caps sojourn the New York Islanders, who are fading from playoff contention and mediocre successful presumption of extremity prevention.

Plus, Ovechkin mightiness beryllium extra-motivated to get the grounds implicit these adjacent 2 contests. That's due to the fact that he's present played 1,485 games — 2 less than Gretzky's vocation total.

WATCH | Ovechkin inches person to record, scores 892nd goal:

To duck successful nether the Great One, Ovechkin needs to people his 33rd vocation chapeau instrumentality connected Friday, which would determination him into a necktie with Brett Hull for the fourth-most ever. But he'd inactive way Gretzky (50), Mario Lemieux (40) and Mike Bossy (39) by a wide margin.

That's a amusive fact. And, arsenic the alleged "Gr8 Chase" nears its conclusion, I thought it mightiness beryllium amusive to compile a fewer much Ovechkin (or astatine slightest Ovechkin-adjacent) tidbits that you whitethorn oregon whitethorn not know. So present goes:

* Ovechkin, who's successful his 20th season, is 1 extremity shy of extending his grounds for vocation 40-goal campaigns to 14. Gretzky antecedently held the grounds with 12.

* Ovechkin besides has the astir 30-goal seasons (19) and shares the grounds for 50-goal seasons (9) with Gretzky and Mike Bossy. But helium lags good down their shared grounds of 5 60-goal seasons with conscionable 1 of his own. Toronto's Auston Matthews, who's 12 years younger than Ovechkin, has already deed 60 goals twice, portion Ovechkin's vocation precocious of 65 goals (in his 3rd twelvemonth successful the league) ranks just 25th each time.

* Remember erstwhile Gretzky (supposedly) said "You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don't take?" Apocryphal oregon not, Ovechkin seems to person taken that punctuation to heart: he's by acold the career person successful shots connected goal with 6,844. That's an mean of 4.6 per crippled and it puts him a whopping 635 (and counting) up of anybody other since the NHL began signaling shots successful 1959.

* Bet you can't conjecture who's No. 2 successful vocation shots. It's defenceman Ray Bourque, who inactive holds the single-game record. He fired 19 (!) of the Bruins' 73 (!) pucks connected Quebec Nordiques goalie Ron Tugnutt on March 21, 1991 astatine the aged Boston Garden, but scored connected conscionable 1 of them successful a 3-3 necktie (remember ties?). Ovechkin's vocation precocious for shots successful a crippled is 15, which he's done twice.

* I cognize we each thought Gretzky's goals grounds would ne'er beryllium broken. But I deliberation we tin inactive accidental (for existent this time!) that Gretzky's points record will ne'er beryllium broken. While nary different subordinate successful past has reached 2,000 points, the Great One racked up an absurd 2,857 successful his 1,487 games. That's astir 2 per crippled and works retired to an mean of astir 158 points per play nether the existent 82-game schedule. The past subordinate to grounds that galore points successful a season? Mario Lemieux — 29 years ago.

* I'm surely not the archetypal idiosyncratic to recite this fact, but if you took distant each azygous 1 of Gretzky's 894 goals, he'd inactive beryllium the all-time points person with his 1,963 assists alone.

* Back to Ovechkin: acknowledgment to those lethal off-wing one-timers of his, he's easy the all-time person with 323 power-play goals — 49 up of crease merchant Dave Andreychuk. Interestingly, Gretzky ranks conscionable 18th with 204 power-play goals, giving value to the statement that helium was the much impactful scorer.

* Ovechkin is besides the vocation person successful empty-net goals with 65 — 9 much than the second-place Gretzky, whose grounds helium broke conscionable implicit a twelvemonth ago. Empty-netters person been on the rise since coaches started listening to the analytics guys' proposal to propulsion their goalies earlier erstwhile trailing precocious successful games.

* Gretzky did a ton of scoring aboriginal successful his career, notching astatine slightest 51 goals successful each of his archetypal 8 seasons and averaging a ridiculous 81 goals successful years 3 done six, including his grounds 92 successful 1981-82. He aboriginal evolved into much of a playmaker and, aging similar a mean human, averaged a humble 20 goals implicit his last 4 seasons — including conscionable 9 successful his farewell 1998-99 with the Rangers, erstwhile helium turned 38. Ovechkin, though, conscionable keeps connected scoring: implicit the past 4 years (since his age-36 season), he's averaging amended than 40 goals.

* Defying the classical aging curve and avoiding injuries has been the cardinal to Ovechkin's success. While he's surely benefited from modern value training, nutrition and the information that helium plays successful an epoch wherever guys don't fume cigarettes during intermissions oregon chug beers aft each crippled (though, yes, Ovie has been known to enjoy a brewski oregon two), his quality to enactment steadfast is astir supernatural. Over his archetypal 19 seasons, Ovechkin missed conscionable 35 games due to the fact that of injury — and helium wasn't precisely shy about throwing his value around.

For much connected Ovechkin's unthinkable longevity and his quest to go the top scorer of each time, I'll erstwhile again urge this fantabulous piece by Chris Jones for CBC Sports.