Alex Ovechkin has already passed Wayne Gretzky in all-time regular season goals, and now, he’s joined The Great One in another elite category.
Ovi’s power-play goal in the third period of Washington’s 3-2 OT loss to Colorado Sunday was his 1,000th career goal between the regular season and playoffs combined, making him and Gretzky the only two players to reach that mark.
And it came from Ovi’s Office, his patented one-timer from the left circle on the power-play where he’s scored so many of his now 923 career regular-season goals and 77 in the postseason.
“It’s always nice to reach something,” Ovechkin told the media after the game. “And it was an important goal as well.”
Important because it tied a game the Caps really needed to win at 2-2, even as they lost later on, and important because it was another milestone to celebrate as we could be looking at the final few weeks of Ovechkin’s NHL career.
“It's just another accolade for him in his just incredible career to get 1,000 goals and do it on home ice and do it in the way (he does).” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “I always like the way things are done, like the Islanders, how he scored there in the celebration, that iconic moment. And this obviously is not on that stage, but on the power play, it’s a huge goal to tie the game late in the third period.”
The goal also extended Ovi’s career-record total of power play goals to 330, but if he’s going to catch Gretzky’s overall total of 1,016 – 894 in the regular season, which Ovechkin eclipsed last April, and a record 122 in the postseason – he’s going to need one of three things: a huge flurry late,
The former is highly unlikely, even if you never say never with Ovechkin, and on the latter, Ovechkin is a free agent at the end of this season, and the 40-year-old future first-ballot Hall of Famer has not made any announcements about his future.
And in the middle, well, Sunday’s loss dropped the Capitals six points behind the Islanders for the second wild card spot in the East, with three teams ahead of them in the race – and all three have at least one game in hand over the Caps, who have played 71.
