Monday night in Montreal, Alex Ovechkin hit a historic milestone when he scored the 544th goal of his career. The tally tied Ovi with Maurice “Rocket” Richard, whom the league’s goalscoring trophy is named after.
Wednesday at Verizon Center, MOAR HISTORY HAPPENED. Our dearest Russian machine tallied point number 1,000, and he did so in front of his family, fans, and a national audience on TV. Ovechkin scored just 35 seconds into the game to become the 29th greatest goalscorer in NHL history.
Here’s how it happened.
Video
No caption needed #Ovech1Kin #CapsPens pic.twitter.com/a0XqeA9d0q
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 12, 2017
Ovi’s favorite assist man Nick Backstrom got him into the offensive zone, and then Ovi took it from there. A spectacular move to center and an even better shot.
History is made!
Watch as Ovechkin high-fives all of his teammates.
After recieving a loud, roaring standing ovation, Ovechkin stood up and saluted the crowd, while his teammates whacked their sticks against the boards.
For those counting at home, Ovechkin’s milestone point comes a year and a day after he tallied his 500th career goal against the Ottawa Senators.
The point makes Ovechkin the 84th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point threshold and the 37th player in NHL history to record 1,000 points with the same franchise. Ovechkin is the fourth Russian/USSR player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points, joining Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny, and Alex Kovalev.
According to ESPN, Ovechkin is the first player to debut (2005-06) after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season to reach 1,000 career points.
Finally, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Ovechkin has the second-most goals (545) through a player’s first 1,000 points in NHL history, trailing only Brett Hull (560).
What a moment. This milestone further solidifies Ovechkin as not only the best player in franchise history, but one of the sport’s greatest players of his era. Ovechkin is now a bonafide Hockey Hall of Famer and we are lucky we got to witness this.
From the Caps:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 11, 2017
Alex Ovechkin Earns 1,000th NHL Point
Capitals captain is second-fastest active player to reach 1,000 career pointsARLINGTON, Va. – Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin earned his 1,000th career point in his 880th NHL game on Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, becoming the second-fastest active player to reach 1,000 points (Jaromir Jagr: 763 games) and the 24th-fastest player to record 1,000 points in NHL history. In addition, he is the 37th player in NHL history to record 1,000 points with one franchise and his 545 career goals are the second-most through a player’s first 1,000 points (Brett Hull: 560) in NHL history.
Ovechkin has earned 1,000 points (545 goals, 455 assists) in 880 career games with the Capitals. He ranks first in franchise history in points (1,000), goals (545), power-play goals (202), shots (4,385), game-winning goals (94), overtime goals (19), power-play points (389), multi-goal games (110) and multi-point games (287). In addition, he ranks second in assists (455) and fourth in games played (880). Ovechkin was drafted by Washington in the first round, first overall, in the 2004 NHL Draft.
Despite making his NHL debut in 2005-06, Ovechkin leads all players in power-play points since 2003-04, goals since 2000-01, game-winning goals since 1999-00, shots since 1998-99, power-play goals since 1997-98, hat tricks since 1996-97 (16), multi-goal games since 1995-96 and overtime goals since 1993-94. In addition, he leads the League in points since 2005-06, ranks second in multi-point games and ranks fourth in hits (2,366) among forwards.
Ovechkin holds the Capitals single-season record in goals (2007-08: 65), power-play goals (2014-15: 25), power-play points (2005-06: 52), overtime goals (2010-11, 2013-14: 3) and shots (2008-09: 528). He recorded the second-most points in franchise history in 2007-08 (112), trailing Dennis Maruk’s 136-point season in 1981-82. During the 2008-09 season, Ovechkin registered 528 shots, marking the second-most shots in a season in NHL history (Phil Esposito: 550). He has recorded three of the top-six single-season shot totals in League history.
The 6’3”, 239-pound left wing became the fifth-fastest player in NHL history to score 500 goals (801 games played) on Jan. 10, 2016 against Ottawa, trailing Wayne Gretzky (575 games), Mario Lemieux (605), Mike Bossy (647) and Brett Hull (693) as the fastest to reach the 500-goal plateau. He has recorded 50 goals in a season six times, joining Bossy (9), Gretzky (9), Marcel Dionne (6), Guy Lafleur (6) and Lemieux (6) as the only players in NHL history to record six or more 50-goal seasons. The Moscow native is the NHL’s leader in career goals by a Russian-born player and his average of 0.619 goals per game is fifth in NHL history (minimum: 300 games played), trailing only Bossy (0.762), Cy Denneny (0.755), Lemieux (0.754) and Pavel Bure (.623).
Ovechkin ranks tied for first in NHL history in overtime goals, tied for 10th in game-winning goals, 13th in shots, tied for 16th in power-play goals and 29th in goals. He has been selected to eight NHL All-Star Games and has won the Hart Trophy three times, the Ted Lindsay/Lester B. Pearson Award three times, the Art Ross Trophy once, the Hart Trophy once and the Calder Memorial Trophy once.
Read more: The Capitals tribute video for Alex Ovechkin
Wes Johnson’s call of point number 1,000
Why the Penguins didn’t salute Alex Ovechkin after his 1,000th point
Alex Ovechkin poses with the milestone puck
Brooks Laich and John Erskine congratulate Ovechkin on milestone
Sergei Fedorov congratulates Alex Ovechkin on joining the 1000-point club
Mikhail Ovechkin and Tatyana Ovechkina react to their son’s 1,000th point
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