Alex Ovechkin’s recent hot streak continued against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday as The Great Eight scored twice, securing his third multi-goal game in his last four games.
The performance gave Ovechkin eight goals in a historic five-game run that led to him being awarded the NHL’s First Star of the Week.
Per Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir, Ovechkin is the first player age 38 or older to ever score eight or more goals in a five-game span. He is also just the second player in that age group to score 18 or more goals in a 24-game span, joining Gordie Howe (19) who did so at age 40 in 1969.
Ovechkin has scored in five consecutive games, his second goal-scoring streak of five or more games this season. Per the NHL, his current streak makes him – at 38 years, 189 days – the fourth-oldest player in league history to record a five-game goal streak, behind only Brett Hull (39 years, 121 days), Johnny Bucyk (39 years, 221 days) and Joe Pavelski (38 years, 269 days).
This is far from the first time that Ovechkin has bucked age-related trends. During his age-36 campaign, Ovi became the oldest player in league history to score 50 goals in a season, eclipsing a record held by Bucyk for over 50 years. That same season he also broke Teemu Selanne’s record (48) for most goals in a season by a player 36 or older.
Additionally, Ovechkin is the oldest player in Capitals franchise history to record a hat trick after he tallied three times against the Florida Panthers in November of 2021. He has broken his own record twice since then with two hat tricks last season.
Earlier this season, Ovechkin went on a 10-game point streak, making him only the ninth player age 38 or older in modern-day NHL history to do so. It was the third-longest point streak for a player at his age.
During those stretch of games from January 24 through February 22, Ovechkin scored eight goals and posted six assists.
Perhaps most impressive of all is simply his consistency once he turned 30 back before the 2015-16 season.
In the nine years since then, Ovechkin has scored at least 30 goals in seven of his seasons. He will likely add an eighth this year and will only not have all nine due to the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season where he was on pace for over 35 goals if the league had played a full schedule.
In comparison, Wayne Gretzky scored 30 or more goals in just three of his seasons after turning 30, and zero of them came after he had turned 34. Ovechkin now trails Gretzky by just 46 goals for a share of the NHL’s all-time lead.
