The GR8 Chase is officially over!
At 7:26 of the second period, with the Capitals on the Power Play, Alex Ovechkin set up in his office and took a pass from Tom Wilson…and when the puck came off his stick, business was complete: Ilya Sorokin was added to the list of goaltenders Ovi has victimized, and the record of 895 career goals was his.
And now, Alex Ovechkin stands alone as the greatest goal scorer in NHL history, a feat that stopped the game action for about 15 minutes as Ovi got his flowers from the NHL, the Islanders, and Wayne Gretzky on the ice.
It mattered not that the Caps were down 2-0 at the time he scored, nor that they answered back less than three minutes later, or even that the Caps lost 4-1, for today will always be history – 19 years, six, months, and one day after he tallied his first two NHL goals.