Alex Ovechkin, who is going to go down as one of the greatest hockey players to ever play, is on a goal-scoring bender that no player at age 39 or older has ever had.
Saturday, Ovechkin scored his 19th goal in 23 games this season and his fourth in five games since returning from a broken freaking leg.
He’s now on pace for 54.6 goals this season despite missing 16 games in November and December.
The goal came on a broken play late in the third period. After Vincent Trocheck won a faceoff through K’Andre Miller’s skates, a hustling Ovi got to the loose puck first and chipped the puck on his backhand past Rangers’ goaltender Jonathan Quick. The goal, scored with 9:10 remaining, gave the Capitals a 5-3 lead and would stand up as the game-winner in Washington’s 7-4 victory.
Ovechkin now has 872 career goals and trails Wayne Gretzky by 22 for a share of the NHL’s all-time goals record. Averaging a league-leading 0.826 goals per game this season, Ovi is on pace to reach goal no. 894 on March 13 versus the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena and then break the record two days later on March 15 against the San Jose Sharks.
JORDAN‼️#ALLCAPS | @Venture_Global pic.twitter.com/WZ1W4i6VHt
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 4, 2025
The game-winner was Ovechkin’s 133rd of his career — second most in NHL history. He now trails record holder Jaromir Jagr (135) by two.
The goal was also Ovechkin’s eighth career tally on Jonathan Quick, Ovi Goalie Victim No. 66.
Later, with a last-minute assist on Tom Wilson’s empty-net goal, Ovechkin registered his 1,580th point passing Ray Bourque (1,579) for the 12th most points in NHL history.
