With chants of ‘Ovi, Ovi’ raining down in the final seconds of Friday’s contest at Canadian Tire Centre, Alex Ovechkin scored the 694th and 695th goals of his regular-season career to surpass Mark Messier (694) for sole possession of eighth place on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
* Ovechkin has 11 goals in his past five games, a first in his NHL career and the second such instance by any player age 34 or older (also Joe Mullen: Dec. 17-26, 1991 w/ PIT). It also is the first time that he has recorded four multi-goal performances in a span of five appearances.
* The 34-year-old Capitals captain has leapfrogged four members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in the past 19 days – Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Messier – in his pursuit of becoming the eighth player in NHL history to reach the 700-goal milestone.
* Ovechkin now needs only 200 goals to surpass Wayne Gretzky for the most in League history.
* Ovechkin is on pace to go from 600 to 700 goals in only 154 games, which would mark the fewest games to make that leap for any member of the 700-goal club. It also would be the second-fewest games to get from one 100-goal milestone to another in his career.
* The fewest contests Ovechkin has needed to score any collection of 100 goals is 126 games – after tallying his 124th career goal Dec. 27, 2007, he netted his 224th goal Oct. 6, 2009.
* Ovechkin now is on track to reach the 700-goal mark in only 1,143 career games – which would be the second-fastest in League history. Wayne Gretzky (886 GP) and Brett Hull (1,157 GP) are the only players to hit the milestone in fewer than 1,200 games.
* Ovechkin has averaged 0.61 goals-per-game to this point in his career – to rank fifth in NHL history (min. 300 GP) – including an NHL-best 0.59 rate since his 30th birthday on Sept. 17, 2015. Among players in the 700-goal club, only two scored at a rate of 0.50 G/GP or higher from age 30 onward.
* Already a record eight-time winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, Ovechkin shares the League lead with 37 goals – tied with 23-year-old David Pastrnak – as he aims to become the third-oldest player to lead the NHL in goals (behind Bill Cook in 1932-33 and Gordie Howe in 1962-63).
* Ovechkin has 11 career goals on Jan. 31 (11 GP), his “favorite date” on the hockey calendar ahead of March 1 (9 G in 8 GP). It could be argued – based on goals-per-game – that his favorite day of the week is either Monday or Thursday (0.67 G/GP each) and that his favorite month is October (0.70 G/GP).
* Ovechkin has 11 goals in his past five games, a first in his NHL career and the second such instance by any player age 34 or older (also Joe Mullen: Dec. 17-26, 1991 w/ PIT). It also is the first time that he has recorded four multi-goal performances in a span of five appearances.
* The 34-year-old Capitals captain has leapfrogged four members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in the past 19 days – Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Messier – in his pursuit of becoming the eighth player in NHL history to reach the 700-goal milestone.
* Ovechkin now needs only 200 goals to surpass Wayne Gretzky for the most in League history.
* Ovechkin is on pace to go from 600 to 700 goals in only 154 games, which would mark the fewest games to make that leap for any member of the 700-goal club. It also would be the second-fewest games to get from one 100-goal milestone to another in his career.
* The fewest contests Ovechkin has needed to score any collection of 100 goals is 126 games – after tallying his 124th career goal Dec. 27, 2007, he netted his 224th goal Oct. 6, 2009.
* Ovechkin now is on track to reach the 700-goal mark in only 1,143 career games – which would be the second-fastest in League history. Wayne Gretzky (886 GP) and Brett Hull (1,157 GP) are the only players to hit the milestone in fewer than 1,200 games.
* Ovechkin has averaged 0.61 goals-per-game to this point in his career – to rank fifth in NHL history (min. 300 GP) – including an NHL-best 0.59 rate since his 30th birthday on Sept. 17, 2015. Among players in the 700-goal club, only two scored at a rate of 0.50 G/GP or higher from age 30 onward.
* Already a record eight-time winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, Ovechkin shares the League lead with 37 goals – tied with 23-year-old David Pastrnak – as he aims to become the third-oldest player to lead the NHL in goals (behind Bill Cook in 1932-33 and Gordie Howe in 1962-63).
* Ovechkin has 11 career goals on Jan. 31 (11 GP), his “favorite date” on the hockey calendar ahead of March 1 (9 G in 8 GP). It could be argued – based on goals-per-game – that his favorite day of the week is either Monday or Thursday (0.67 G/GP each) and that his favorite month is October (0.70 G/GP).