Friday night, the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes had a grand ole offensive firepower showcase. With ten goals scored in regulation we didn’t have a victor until the shootout skills competition where the Caps came out the victor 6-5.
The Caps out-shot the Hurricanes 29 to 27 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 51 to 41.
- I could probably do another entire numbers post on just Alex Ovechkin for the second straight game…so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. He recorded yet another hat trick on Friday night, giving him 28 goals on the season which leads the league by five over Patrik Laine (23). His first goal of the night extended his point streak to 13 games (16 goals, 6 assists) which ties his career high set as 13 games from January 1, 2007 through February 1, 2007 (8 goals, 12 assists).
- Ovi’s hat trick was his seventh multi-goal game of the season and the 127th of his career. Those 127 games are tied for the ninth most all time with Mike Bossy and Jaromir Jagr. Next up on the list in eigth is Teemu Selanne with 131.
Additionally, @ovi8 became the 13th player in League history to record a hat trick against 14 or more different opponents. #NHLStats #WSHvsCAR pic.twitter.com/lWXKN5iMKn
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 15, 2018
- The Capitals first lead of the night came from Ovechkin scoring his first power play goal in 11 games, only his second power play point during his 13-game point streak. That goal was the 237th of the power play variety in his career which ties him for sixth all time with Brendan Shanahan and it also gives him the most all time PPGs with one franchise. In both categories the Great Eight bested Mario Lemieux‘s 236 goals. Folks, he’s been producing like this without really using his main weapon, that being his seemingly unstoppable ability to score from his power play office. His 30 even strength points ranks fourth in the NHL behind only Mikko Rantanen (36), Nathan MacKinnon (33), and Connor McDavid (33). Look out future penalty kills.
Ovechkin is the 18th different player in the modern era (since 1943-44) to score 28+ goals in his team's first 31 games, and third to do so since 1993-94.
The others:
Jaromir Jagr: 1995-96 (28 G in 31 GP) & 1996-97 (30 G in 31 GP)
Mario Lemieux: 1995-96 (29 G in 27 GP)#NHLStats pic.twitter.com/7hUI6v4PW2— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 15, 2018
- One team thing to note is that the Caps have now gone 13 games with scoring at least three goals. That’s the first time they’ve done that since the “Young Guns” era in 2009-10.
- Almost forgot to mention that Ovi’s 22nd career regular season hat trick ties him for 11th all time in that category with Selanne. Fun fact, all of this craziness last night happened in the same building the Caps drafted him at number one overall in 2004, PNC Arena.
Alex Ovechkin became the 14th player in NHL history to record a hat trick in consecutive games on multiple occasions in his career and the first to do so since Alex Kovalev (Feb. 7 & 10 and Nov. 13 & 14, 2001). #NHLStats #WSHvsCAR pic.twitter.com/1tjAtj59ar
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 15, 2018
- Here’s a bullet to congratulate Jonas Siegenthaler on his first career NHL point, Nic Dowd on his first career three assist/point game, Travis Boyd on his three game goal scoring and four game point streaks, and Evgeny Kuznetsov on his seven game assist/point streak. Oh and Tom Wilson also scored again, giving him nine goals in twelve games this season.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Hurricanes
Headline photo: Gregg Forwerck
