Alex Ovechkin will have another opportunity this evening to either tie or pass Gordie Howe to become the second greatest goal-scorer of all time.

Two of Howe’s children, Mark and Marty, will be in attendance at Capital One Arena to hopefully see him do it.

The Capitals will face Gordie Howe’s previous team tonight, the Detroit Red Wings. Ovechkin currently sits at 800 goals, one goal shy of tying Howe’s goal total of 801, and two tallies away from passing it. Howe spent 25 seasons in Detroit and scored 786 of his 801 goals with the team.

Gordie’s son Mark Howe was in attendance when the Caps last played the Red Wings on November 3rd. Ovechkin tied Gordie that night for most NHL goals scored with one team.

Mark and Ovechkin had a chance to meet each other pregame.

The #Gr8 meets Mark Howe for the first time! pic.twitter.com/dmpJn5fIlk

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 3, 2022

The two were able to meet up again just a month later when the Capitals faced the Philadelphia Flyers on December 7th. Mark took the opportunity then to restate his support for Ovechkin’s chase of the goal record and to give his support to The Great Eight in person.

“It’s one thing to see someone speaking on a jumbotron on somebody’s behalf, but I think it means a lot more if you have met that person and you know that person,” Mark said per Nhl.com’s Tom Gulitti.

“Records are meant to be broken, and that’s to be number two,” Mark added. “Anytime you can pass Gordie Howe in anything, I think it’s a major achievement. But I think with Alex and the way he’s spent his career, I’m sure his sights are set a little bit higher.”

Mark and Marty got the chance to play in the NHL with their father during the Hartford Whalers 1979-1980 season. The three are the only father-son-son trio to play on NHL ice together. The Howe brothers continued to play in the NHL afterwards with Mark playing 16 seasons and Marty playing six.

As for the captain himself, Ovi is excited to have the Howe brothers in attendance tonight. He’s looking forward to the possibility of making history versus Gordie’s former team.

“I hope it can happen,” Ovechkin said. “It would be nice obviously but you never know.”

The Howe sons attending the game passes down a tradition started by their father, who attended the game that Wayne Gretzky tied and passed him for most points all time. Past record holders have often attended the games where their records could possibly be broken in a show of good sportsmanship.

Wayne Gretzky plans to do this with Alex Ovechkin if the time comes. In an interview with NBC Sports Washington, Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis noted that the plans for him to travel with the team were already curated.

“Wayne Gretzky calls me all the time and says, ‘Alex is going to pass me. I want to be with the team when that happens.’ He’s going to travel with the team and Alex,” Leonsis said.

Previous Capital players have stated they want to be there for the record as well. Alex Semin went as far as to say he’ll move from Russia back to the US when Alex gets close.

“If it happens, I will definitely be there,” Semin said. “When there is a goal or two left before the record, I will live in America. I will go to Washington. I think a whole delegation will ride behind Ovechkin.”

Even with all the record talks, Ovi’s main focus has stayed just trying to play his game.

“We just try to play and try to get the points,” Ovechkin stated, “and that’s the most important thing right now.”