Alexander Ovechkin, the three-time Hart Trophy — National Hockey League’s MVP — winner and 2018 Stanley Cup champion, has surpassed “the Great One” Wayne Gretzky for most goals in NHL history.
After years of creeping closer, countless projections on when, if and how, and the increasing realization that it was all but inevitable, Ovechkin — or “Ovi”— finally did it. After tying Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goal mark this past Friday against the Chicago Blackhawks with two goals in the Washington Capitals 5-3 win at home in Washington, D.C., Ovi and the Caps headed to Long Island to face a mid-tier New York Islanders team.
Having already clinched a playoff spot and almost certainly the one-seed in the Eastern Conference, the result of this past Sunday’s 11:30 a.m. CST game against the New York Islanders felt like a side note compared to the record that was at stake. And though the Capitals lost, it sure felt like a win – if not a playoff win. It was only fitting that Ovi’s goal came on a power play, from the right side, on a snipe far from the goal. It wasn’t quite his signature one-timer blast, but it was pretty close.
The crowd eruption was electric, and you would’ve never known it wasn’t a game-winning goal or that the Capitals were on the road. Not only did many Caps fans make the not-too-long drive from Washington to Long Island, New York, but most Islanders fans in the building couldn’t help but applaud greatness. And neither could “the Great One” himself. The NHL made the half-ridiculous, half-appropriate decision to stop the game right in the middle, wheel out a giant blue carpet and have a ceremony crowning Ovi the new NHL all-time goals king.
At the center of it all was Wayne Gretzky, who himself had once passed Gordie Howe for most goals ever back on March 23, 1994, as a member of the Los Angeles Kings when he scored his 802nd career goal against the Vancouver Canucks. Gretzky seemed genuinely proud of, impressed by and happy for Ovi, shaking his hands in the middle of the ceremony, saying “Alex, I said I’d be the first guy to shake your hand when you broke the record” before a nice handshake and hug between the two, signifying the official passing of the baton. Fascinatingly, as of this writing, Alex Ovechkin and Wayne Gretzky have both played the exact same number of games at 1,487, meaning it took Ovi the exact length of Wayne’s career to break his goal record by just one.
So, can anyone possibly ever break this record? Well, anything seems possible now. Gretzky’s 894 mark was previously thought to be unbreakable until many realized Ovechkin had a real chance at it about four or five years ago. One name that comes to mind is Auston Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs captain, whose 398 goals through 624 games are actually at a higher goals-per-game pace than Ovi’s career numbers of 895 goals through 1,487 games, with the two being at 0.64 and 0.6, respectively. Matthews is only 27 years old, currently in the prime of his career and is still searching for his first Stanley Cup – just as Ovi was at that stage in his career.
If Matthew’s Leafs and Ovi’s Capitals each advance a round or two — depending on seeding — they could end up playing each other in the postseason this year for the first time since 2017, when a veteran Capitals team beat up on a young upstart Leafs team. A rematch would be epic. The Stanley Cup playoffs start Saturday, April 19. Buckle up.
