At this point in his career, Alex Ovechkin makes history almost every night he touches the ice. And Saturday, after scoring his 24th career hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings, Ovechkin joined more elite company after notching his 15th straight 20-goal season to start his career.
Ovechkin is only the fifth player ever to do so joining Marcel Dionne, Mike Gartner, Jaromir Jagr, and Mats Sundin.
Getting to the 20 goal mark just 28 games into his 2019-20 thanks to a hat trick tonight for the @Capitals vs DET, Alex Ovechkin becomes just the 5th player on this list of consistent goal scorers from the very start of their careers pic.twitter.com/41CwBKdtjN
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) December 1, 2019
Last year, Ovechkin became the second player in NHL history to start his career with 14-straight 30-goal seasons as well as the the fourth player ever to have ten 40-goal seasons and the third player ever to have eight 50-goal seasons.
It’s Ovechkin’s incredible consistency and durability which is making Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record seem possible to catch. Ovi is doing this during a time where he should be regressing due to age.
Alex Ovechkin's goal-scoring consistency:
2005-06 to 2011-12:
339 goals in 553 games (0.61 GPG)2012-13* to 2019-20:
339 goals in 559 games (0.61 GPG)*48-game season in 2012-13.
Career: 678 goals, in 1,112 games (0.61 GPG)
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 1, 2019
If you were wondering, Ovechkin's 339 goals from 2005-06 to 2011-12 were most in the NHL. Ilya Kovalchuk was second with 298.
Ovechkin's 339 goals from start of 2012-13 also are most in NHL. John Tavares has second most with 245.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 1, 2019
Number of times Alex Ovechkin has had the following shot total:
0 shots: 13 times
1 shot: 53 times
2 shots: 128 times
3 shots: 157 times
4 shots: 178 times
5 shots: 189 times
6 shots: 147 times
7 shots: 100 times
8 shots: 63 times
9 shots: 34 times
10+ shots: 49 times— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) November 30, 2019
According to reader @twaxpoetic, Ovechkin will pass Gretzky in 351 more games if he can keep this pace up.
If he keeps up this rate (0.61 GPG), Ovechkin will pass Gretzky in 351 more games. That's the rest of this season, plus another 3.62 seasons, not counting postseason games. So January/February of 2024. At age 38. Not impossible.@russianmachine never breaks https://t.co/7BKGKCt5gV
— stevie d (@twaxpoetic) December 1, 2019
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Red Wings
Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington
