Alex Ovechkin seemed personally against scoring his milestone 802nd career goal into an empty net, demurring on a wide-open chance and sending the puck back to Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Russian centerman then forced a pass back to Ovi, who, without any other option, threw a no-look shot along the side boards toward the net. The tally, Ovechkin’s second of the night against the Winnipeg Jets, pushed the Capitals’ captain past Gordie Howe for second on the all-time goals list.
With his Russian forward now 12 goals away from breaking the NHL record, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery believes Ovechkin is going to have the same attitude and be selective on how he scores career goals number 894 and 895 — the tallies that would tie and then pass Wayne Gretzky.
“I’ve thought about it,” Carbery said on Wednesday morning while speaking to 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies. “I haven’t talked to O about this yet, but, this is my guess, is that when it gets to that point, I don’t think he’s going to want to break it with an empty netter.”
Or tie the record?
“Yeah,” Carbery said. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
“I think the goal to break Wayne, this iconic record that’ll be shown for years to come in history, I think you want a goaltender in the net,” Carbery said.
The Capitals head coach, who has Washington in first place in the entire NHL, agreed with the Sports Junkies that there’s nothing wrong in general with Ovechkin scoring empty-net goals as he’s earned the right to be out on the ice during crunch time.
“He’s a lot of times our best option to be out there to win the hockey game,” he said.
While Ovechkin holds the NHL record for empty-net goals with 64, Gretzky sits second with 56. Ovi passed The Great One on the ENG list on February 10, 2024.
Carbery said he’ll have a brief conversation with Ovechkin as he gets closer to the record to see how he feels, and then they’ll jointly decide on a plan moving forward.
“Yeah, it won’t be anything crazy,” he said. “It’ll just be, ‘Hey, here’s what I’m thinking. Here’s where you’re at with it. What are your thoughts?’ Get his opinion, and then we’ll just go from there.”
The only part that seemed to pain the competitive Carbery is that the Caps’ longtime left wing has become such an integral player closing out potential victories, the lingering record could impact decision-making both by Ovechkin on the ice and Carbery on the bench.
“Yeah, I haven’t gotten to that far planning-wise, but I have thought about it, and I think it’s something that we’ll discuss and decide,” he said. “You just want to make sure there’s a goalie in the net when he breaks it.”
S/T to Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir for first tweeting.
