Tag: Sets

It’s official. No NHL scorer has tormented more goaltenders than Alex Ovechkin.

On Thursday night in Ottawa, Ovechkin beat Leevi Merilainen with a snap shot from the left face-off circle at 3:07 of overtime, giving the Washington Capitals a 1-0 win over the Ottawa Senators.

Per ESPN, the 22-year-old rookie Meralainen is the 179th goalie that Ovechkin has scored on in his NHL career. That’s a new record for the most different goalies that one player has scored on, one ahead of Jaromir Jagr.

The NHL has assembled a video compilation of all 179 goalies. If you’re going to watch it, do it on your lunch hour: it’s more than 47 minutes long.

Jagr, now 52, sits fourth on the all-time goal-scoring list with 766 goals in 1,733 career NHL games. He’ll be a Hockey Hall of Famer once he finally wraps up his playing career. He’s now in his eighth year playing for the Kladno Knights, the team he owns in his native Czechia. This year, he has four goals and nine points in 24 games.

At 39, Ovechkin is now at 874 NHL goals in 1,455 games. He needs 20 more to match Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894, and 21 to set a new standard.

Not even the most serious injury of Ovechkin’s career has derailed the quest that the NHL has dubbed ‘The Gr8 Chase.’ Though he missed 16 games over more than five weeks with a fractured left fibula, the Washington Capitals captain re-joined his team’s lineup ahead of schedule, right after the league’s Christmas holiday break.

He now has six goals in 11 games since his return, a scoring rate of 0.55 goals per game.

Thursday’s win came in the Capitals’ 45th game of the season, so they have 37 to go this year.

If Ovechkin maintains his post-injury pace through the rest of the year, he’d score another 20. That would tie Gretzky and make his first goal of the 2025-26 season the record-breaker.

But don’t rule out the prospect of him picking up the pace.

“I think we really have to be careful to judge, just coming back from the injury,” said Capitals coach Spencer Carbery earlier this week. “It’s harder than I think people may realize, just because the rest of the league and the rest of the players are in mid-season form right now. And to miss a month and then try to get back up and running at 39 is a lot easier said than done.

“So, I think if you look into the numbers and that stuff, that’s probably what you’re seeing is him getting back up to speed. It’s going to take some time. We know that. I know that. He probably wants that to be rushed as we do as well, but it’s going to take some time.”

Historically, Ovechkin also tends to heat up in the second half. And his 21 goals in 29 total games this season are a scoring rate of .724 goals per game — which dramatically eclipses his impressive career scoring rate of .600.

Barring further injuries, Ovechkin’s career-average rate would put him on pace to score No. 895 in the Capitals’ 80th game of the season, when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets for their last home game of the year on April 13.

If he can stay at .724 goals a game, he’d break the record in Washington’s 74th game of the year — in Boston on April 1.

As the record draws closer, there’s one other key stat to watch.

Gretzky’s 894 goals came in 1,487 games. If Ovechkin can hit 895 in his next 32 games or fewer, he would also beat The Great One’s career scoring pace.

Ovechkin already holds the records for most power-play goals (317), most shots (6,732) and most empty-net goals (61). But anyone who feels that the empty-net tallies sully his record chase can rest easy. He’s just five ahead of Gretzky, who sits second with 56. The differential is not even one percent of the final total.

Thursday’s tally was also the 134th game-winning goal of Ovechkin’s career. That moves him within one of the all-time record of 135, held by Jagr.

With the win on Thursday, the Capitals maintain first place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference with a record of 30-10-5, and lead the league with a .722 points percentage.

The Gr8 Chase continues Saturday, when the Capitals host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.