Alex Ovechkin joined Wayne Gretzky atop the NHL’s goals leaderboard after scoring career goals number 893 and 894 against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.
Not only did Ovechkin reach 894 — a goal total that many thought would never be equaled — but he did so in one less game (1,486) than Gretzky played in his career (1,487).
Note: Gretzky scored his 894th career goal in his 1,479th game and then went without a goal for the last eight games of his career, meaning he technically scored 894 in seven fewer games than Ovi.
Ovechkin achieved the feat despite playing in an era with much better goaltending than Gretzky. Per PuckCentral, the average save percentage for a goalie in the 1980s was .870, while in the 2010s, the average netminder improved to .910.
Since Ovechkin debuted, the average NHL team has scored around 3 goals per game, with a high of 3.14 goals per game in 2022-23 and a low of 2.65 goals per game in 2012-13. During Gretzky’s career, the average was almost an entire goal higher, with a high of 4.01 reached during the 1981-82 campaign.
Ovechkin is far and away the league’s all-time leader in Hockey Reference’s “era-adjusted goals,” 74 ahead of Gordie Howe. The stat was formulated in order to account for different schedule lengths, roster sizes, and scoring environments over the NHL’s 107 seasons.
Ovechkin was previously on pace this season to beat Gretzky to 894 goals, as he was scoring at an incredible 0.83 goal-per-game pace earlier in the year. If he had continued scoring at that rate, he’d have tied the record in 1,476 career games — three fewer games than Gretzky.
Despite missing 16 games after fracturing his fibula in November, Ovechkin has barely missed a step since returning. While he did not maintain his previous near-impossible pace, he is still scoring at the fifth-best rate of his career in a season, 0.68 goals per game, at age 39.
Ovechkin’s next goal will top Gretzky and give him sole possession of the goals record. The Capitals play on the road against the New York Islanders on Sunday afternoon.
