Alex Ovechkin is the first NHL player with twenty goals after sinking a nifty backhander against San Jose’s Martin Jones on the rush.
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Gotta love goals off the rush #CapsSharks #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/KUKKzQMeB5
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 5, 2017
The Sharks had been dominating play for going on five minutes, but Ovechkin got the puck and neutral and started a drive. It ended abruptly as some fancy stickwork failed to bewitch Brent Burns.
The turnover gave the Sharks a 2-on-1 rush, but Jannik Hansen missed the net.
On the Sharks very next rush up ice, Ovechkin stole the puck from Burns at the Caps’ blue line and launched a one-on-none breakaway towards the Sharks net. Ovechkin moved to the backhand and put the puck in the back of the net.
Here’s another look.
2-0 Caps and 20 goals for Ovi. It’s also Ovi’s eighth goal against the Sharks in 17 career games and his first against Martin Jones.
Alex Ovechkin has passed Mark Recchi on the NHL's all-time goals list with his 578th career goal. pic.twitter.com/gcjOYHzLAx
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 5, 2017
On a broader scale, 578 career goals puts Ovechkin in sole possession of 20th place in the NHL all-time goal-scoring list.
With 20 goals in 27-plus games, Alex Ovechkin is currently on the second-best GPG pace of his career (2007-08).
— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) December 5, 2017
All this after the worst goals-per-game season (0.40) of Ovechkin's career. Also two away from matching his ESG total (16) from '16-17.
— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) December 5, 2017
