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‘Yes I do’: Teemu Selanne believes Alex Ovechkin will break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record

By Ian Oland

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January 16, 2020 6:08 pm

Teemu Selanne knows a thing or two about scoring goals. The Finnish Flash scored the most goals as a rookie in NHL history (76) and led the league in goal scoring three different times (76, 1992-93; 52, 1997-98; and 47, 1998-99).

So when Alex Ovechkin overtook the 1997 Stanley Cup champion for 11th on the all-time goal-scoring list, Selanne was both impressed and congratulatory. He also had some advice.

“Hi Alex. It’s Teemu Selanne here, and congrats for passing me on the all-time goal-scoring list. You’re going to score a lot more goals so keep it going. Keep having fun. That is the key. All the best.”

Ovechkin responded on his personal Twitter, saying “thx bro!!! huge honor to be with you !!!”

After scoring twice in the first period of Monday’s game, Ovechkin was the interview guest of NBC Sports Washington’s Al Koken and spoke about what it meant to pass Teemu.

“Right now I still have a long ways to go,” Ovechkin said, admitting that he’s now gunning for Wayne Gretzky’s goal record. “Of course, it’s nice to beat those guys. Teemu Selanne was one of my favorite player [so sic] growing up. How I said, I still have lots of juice in my tank.”

Ovechkin currently has 686 career goals, putting him 208 goals behind Gretzky for the all-time lead (894).

A Twitter follower asked Selanne if he thought Ovechkin could catch The Great One.

Fingers crossed he’s right.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Canes

Headline photo: @TeemuSel8nne

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