The Washington Capitals lost Sunday’s road game to the New York Islanders, but this will not be how the day will be remembered. Sunday, April 6, 2025 is the day Alex Ovechkin became immortal. Scoring goal 895 of his career, Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky to take sole possession of the NHL’s all-time scoring record.
Alex Ovechkin breaks Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goals record against Islanders with 895th career goal
Other goals were scored – none worthy of remembering for long. Bo Horvat during a strong cycle, Mark Gatcomb bookending Ovechkin’s goal, Jean-Gabriel Pageau trickled one in. It wasn’t the best outing for Charlie Lindgren, but I trust he’ll smile when looking back on it anyway.
Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin had denied Alex Ovechkin in their three prior meetings. Now he becomes No. 183 on Ovechkin’s victim’s list. During the on-ice ceremony, Ovechkin made sure to thank Sorokin for the contribution. That goal was Ovechkin’s 420th since his 30th birthday. It was his 69th point of the season. Sports is about numbers.
Thanks to a somewhat mysterious backroom negotiation, Joe Beninati got to make the call on the Monumental broadcast.
Beninati’s voice is how Capitals hockey sounds. It’s that simple. It felt right. It felt even righter with Craig Laughlin, two months after a heart operation, at his side.
I got to hug Caps arena announcer Wes Johnson yesterday for the first time since his own brush with death. He’s at AwesomeCon today, about to screen his short film Sanctuary, but he’ll host a ceremony at Capital One Arena soon, and in the meantime he cut this video – in Sheogorath costume, to my delight.
Behind the scenes at RMNB, you would not believe what it’s been like. Ian has led the team with intense focus and even intenser joy. It is sneakily easy to be blasé about this – I am maybe guilty of that – but the RMNB crew is not. Chris is seizing the moment. Katie is on the scene in Long Island, documenting history. Dani is dialed in and keeping us grounded. Austen is coming in clutch. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m as grateful to them as I am to Ovechkin for the moment. And I’m as grateful to you for reading as I am not to Mario Lemieux for his video congratulating Ovechkin.
I recently went through an email chain between me and Ian from 2009. “I really do think Ovechkin is the second coming of Gretzky,” I wrote. “Maybe not really, but the man now wants to be the new Great One even more than we want him to be.”
He is.
Does today mark the end of Ovimaxxing? The legend is now accomplished, and the team has lost five of its last seven games. There’s another horizon ahead, and its name is loffs. What will the post-record Caps look like? We’ll find out on Thursday, when the Canes come to town.
Here’s to the next 895.
