Alex Ovechkin could add to his NHL record for most goaltenders scored on when the Capitals square off against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night. Per the AP’s Stephen Whyno, Ovechkin will play his second career game against Blues netminder Joel Hofer after scoring four goals in his last two games.
The Great Eight set the all-time record, 179 unique netminders, when he put away an overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators’ Leevi Merilainen on January 16. He has since added Philadelphia’s Ivan Fedotov and Edmonton’s Calvin Pickard to his list this season.
Ovechkin tested Hofer four times in their first meeting, which occurred on March 17, 2023, but Hofer stopped all four shots. Hofer, brother of Capitals prospect Ryan Hofer, was named First Star of the Game as he stopped 32 of 34 shots faced in a 5-2 Blues victory.
Alex Ovechkin seeing a goalie he’s never scored on 😈😂
(h/t @Tarik_ElBashir) pic.twitter.com/Hg9JbhbMSN
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 27, 2025
Ovechkin is just 12 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for first on the NHL’s all-time goals list. He has 24 games remaining to be able to secure the record this year.
Charlie Lindgren was the first goaltender off of the ice for the Capitals, so he’ll match up against Hofer in Washington’s crease. Lindgren, a former Blues player who was briefly Hofer’s goaltending partner, has played against St. Louis three times in his career, making back-to-back starts against them last season. He is 1-1-1 with a 2.94 goals-against average and a .877 save percentage in those three games.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery did not reveal any lineup changes during his pregame media availability despite being unhappy with his team’s effort in their 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. The second year bench boss expects a similar effort from a desperate Blues team on Thursday night.
“Team that’s playing better of late,” Carbery said. “Similar to Calgary, everything that’s coming out of their locker room is, at this point, every game the season is on the line. Similar to us last year.”
St. Louis has won two games in a row but remains five points out of the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference. The Blues have not qualified for the postseason in either of the past two years.
Blues forward Brayden Schenn will play in his 1,000th NHL game in the matchup. His brother Luke Schenn achieved the same feat earlier this season with the Nashville Predators.
