Washington Capitals: Counting down Alex Ovechkin’s top 8 goals
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has scored 600 goals. Let’s take a look at The Great Eight’s eight most memorable goals.
Regardless of how you feel about Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, you can’t deny several things about him. Firstly, he is extremely good at scoring goals. Not just among his peers, either. He’s one of the best goal scorers of all-time. Bar none.
Secondly, Ovechkin loves to score goals. Sometimes, his reaction to scoring is even better than the goal itself. Which is saying something because Ovechkin’s goals aren’t like any other goals. They’re amazing.
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Ovechkin has scored 600 goals in his NHL career, as of March 14. That’s a lot of goals. Ovechkin did so in the fourth-fewest games. Only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull took shorter to get to 600 goals.
Seeing as how Ovechkin is “The Great Eight”, let’s take a look at eight of his best goals during his career.
8. OK Ovi, That’s Cheating
Coming in at number eight on my list is a personal favorite of mine. This one came during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2014-15 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the New York Rangers.
Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and Ovechkin have faced each other many times throughout their career. They have a bit of a rivalry, but they also have a ton of respect to each other. Ovechkin loves to talk trash. It wouldn’t surprise me if he constantly reminds Lundqvist he once scored on him from his knees.
This highlights just how unfairly awesome Ovechkin is. To be so good, so big, and so fast seems like a cheat code. Only Ovechkin could score from his knees and somehow make it look like he meant to do it. This shows just how powerful Ovi’s shot is, even while he’s falling down. It also highlights the kind of defense Lundqvist has had to deal with his entire career, so pour one out for him.
7. End to End to End The Game
Alex Ovechkin, believe it or not, is the NHL’s career leader in overtime goals. Obviously, the era during which he has played has given him a ton of opportunities to score past regulation. But still, anytime you’re the NHL’s career leader in something, you’re doing something right.
There had to be at least one overtime winner on this list. My favorite one is one I actually got to see live. It came against the Rangers. Following two brilliant saves from Braden Holtby, Ovechkin got the puck and said, “screw you guys, I’m doing this myself”.
Most of Ovi’s goals involve The Great Eight touching the puck for less than a second. This one, however, highlights just how great Ovechkin is. He’s like an 18-wheeler when he gets going. Ovechkin can also puck handle very well, though he rarely shows it off.
The Great Eight has 29 goals against the Rangers in 50 career games (0.58 goals per game). If Ovechkin sustained this pace during an 82 game season, he’d end with 47.5 goals. That’s just above his goals per season average of 46.15 and those 29 goals are his ninth-most against any franchise.
This is the final time the Rangers will show up on this list, so let’s close it with another classic.
6. Two Goals in 12 seconds
Yes, this is two goals. But hey, my list, my rules. These two goals happened just 12 seconds apart from each other, so close enough. Back in October of 2010, the Washington Capitals were trailing the Calgary Flames 2-1 in the second period.
The Flames did the dumbest thing possible by giving the Caps a five-on-three power play. It went precisely how you think it went. Ovechkin scored twice in 12 seconds to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead.
Ovi has scored so many goals from the office, so I had to pick out something that showed just how asininely amazing he is from there. The area behind the net in hockey is often called “Wayne Gretzky’s office” because he loved to hang out back there and do damage.
Ovechkin hasn’t retired yet, but it’s not too early to start calling the left offensive zone face-off circle “Ovi’s office”. Nothing is more telling of a player’s dominance than by being extremely predictable, yet unstoppable.
Mariano Rivera’s cutter is a great example. Every hitter knew for a fact Mo was throwing a cutter. And he still dominated. Everyone in the arena knows where Ovechkin loves to shoot from. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. He still scores.
5. Schooling Keith
Having Alex Ovechkin make you look foolish is a time-honored tradition in the NHL. The Great Eight has no mercy. He doesn’t care who you are, he will not hesitate to make you look foolish. Even two-time Norris Trophy winner Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks is fair game.
2011-12 was arguably Ovechkin’s worst year. He didn’t have much success under Dale Hunter, who took away his playing time to play boring hockey. But Ovechkin still had some pretty outstanding moments that season. His best came against the Blackhawks in March.
Yes, that’s Keith who Ovechkin just schooled. The Great Eight is such an excellent shooter, parts of his game become overlooked. One of those areas is his puck handling. That’s one impressive deke by Ovechkin. It took nothing less to beat Keith in his prime.
Just to show how ruthless Ovechkin is, here he is making Erik Karlsson look silly after scoring his 500th career goal earlier in the game.
Those two goals are pretty similar. But personally, Ovechkin’s goal against the Blackhawks was better. This won’t be the first time we’ll see Ovi repeat himself when scoring goals. Ovechkin has made so many defensemen look bad. So next time you have a drink, pour one out for those poor unfortunate souls.
4 Through 2: Dueling Hat Tricks
Alex Ovechkin has a reputation for being a playoff choker. That’s a simply asinine suggestion because he has the third highest goals per game average among active players and has roughly the same points per game ratio as Phil Kessel.
The next time someone tells you Ovechkin chokes in the postseason, enlighten the uninformed person about that time Ovi and Sidney Crosby both scored hat tricks. This happened back in the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals. It was the height of the Ovi vs. Crosby rivalry.
Ovechkin and Sid The Kid bring out the best in each other. It feels like every time they play, both have a huge impact on the game. Their rivalry has been around since before they were drafted, as they were junior hockey rivals before joining the NHL.
Even if you’re a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, the dueling hat tricks have to be near the top of your most unforgettable moments as a sports fan. Watching two of the best players ever play a game of “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” is always fun.
Unfortunately, Ovechkin and the Capitals lost to the Penguins. This has been the story of Ovi’s career, and Crosby’s as well.
1. “The Goal”
When you think of Alex Ovechkin, there’s one moment that sticks out. In his rookie season, Ovi was one of the most dominant rookies the NHL has ever seen. It takes a lot to impress someone who scored 894 goals during the regular season. But Ovechkin did just that by scoring while falling down.
I don’t know what’s more hilarious – the goal, Ovechkin’s reaction once he realized he scored, or Gretzky (then the Coyotes head coach) staring at the jumbotron to catch the replay. Ovi has scored 600 goals and this one is still his most impressive 12 years later.
But this wasn’t the only time Ovechkin pulled the “scoring while falling” trick out of his playbook. Oh no. Let’s remember two other times when he did. The first time came against the Montreal Canadiens.
This one was similar to the first, except Ovechkin got bored and decided to throw in an off-the-boards pass to himself while doing a 360. No big deal. The second time came against the New Jersey Devils.
His third falling goal is extremely impressive. But just like most Hollywood movies, the original one is better than the sequels. There are so many other goals I could have included. I could have done a top 50 and still felt like I left some off.
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What’s your favorite Alex Ovechkin goal? Talk about it in the comments!