Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has taken one other step towards NHL immortality.
On Wednesday, Ovechkin notched profession objective No. 855, serving to seal a Capitals’ 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. The long run Corridor of Famer now wants solely 39 targets to tie and 40 targets to leap forward of Wayne Gretzky for essentially the most in NHL historical past (894).
Of the quite a few occasions Ovechkin has lit the lamp, Wednesday’s could have been one of many best, shoveling a free puck right into a yawning web with 1:10 remaining within the third interval. However, when chasing historical past, all of them look the identical within the stat sheet.
Wednesday’s tally was Ovechkin’s fiftieth towards the Flyers, tied for the third-most he is scored towards a single franchise, per the Capitals. In line with the NHL, over the previous 44 seasons, he is solely the fourth player to record 50 or more goals towards 4 totally different franchises, becoming a member of Gretzky (5), Mario Lemieux (4) and Steve Yzerman (4).
Ovechkin started the 2024-25 marketing campaign and not using a objective over three video games. However he is made the rating sheet twice within the earlier three contests, together with Wednesday’s empty-netter.
Whether or not or not Ovechkin can cross “The Nice One” this season stays to be seen.
Over six video games a 12 months in the past, Ovechkin had solely two targets, however he’d finally warmth up, ending the 12 months with 31. If repeated, the 39-year-old would nonetheless be 9 wanting Gretzky, which means he’d should return for NHL season No. 21 to etch his identify atop the listing within the document books.