Photo via Caps Instagram

Washington Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin is 28 year old. Over the years, he’s had his critics: no Stanley Cup, no Olympic gold, he keeps trying the same move, why isn’t Brooks Laich the captain already?

But if you look at how Ovechkin stacks up against others, he’s already one of the greatest to ever play the game. He seems destined to be a first-ballot hockey hall-of-famer.

Fun fact: did you know that with his masterful two goal performance on Thursday, Ovi surpassed Eric Lindros in goals? He entered the game with 372 regular-season tallies, the same as Lindros had at the end of his injury-plagued 13-season NHL career. Ovechkin is two games into his ninth season.

Ovechkin is 109th in the NHL’s all-time goal scorers list, 11th among active players. He’s one goal behind Patrik Elias, Milan Hejduk, Trevor Linden, and Butch Goring; two behind Ray Whitney and Ryan Smyth, five behind Claude Lemieux and Ted Lindsay. Kind of big names. Among active players, Ovechkin trails Vincent Lecavalier by just nine goals.

Next time you catch a whiff of the old Ovechkin-hate, point the critics here.

Other notable numbers on a very young season:

• The Caps have used 19 players so far this season. 20 of the team’s 23 points (87%) come from just five players: Ovechkin, Grabovski, Backstrom, Green, and Johansson.
• Troy Brouwer is without a point in 38 minutes of ice time despite being on the ice for 5:23 of the Capitals’ 9:24 of power play time.
• The Capitals have scored 5 goals in 9 power play opportunities, a blistering 55.6% conversion rate.