Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin is on a mission

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin continues to stun the hockey community. We are watching one of the greatest scorers of all time who is showing no sign of slowing down.

Everybody knows it’s coming. The goaltender, the defense, the fans, the commentators. And yet, when Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin fires off his patented one-timer, no one can stop it. Ovechkin has been shooting this way since he entered the league 13 years ago and nothing has changed, except some white hairs are becoming more prominent.

On Friday, Dec. 14, against the Carolina Hurricanes, he recorded his second straight hat trick, giving him 22 in his career. He is now tied with Teemu Selanne for 11th most hat tricks in NHL history. His latest offensive surge has propelled him to first in the league in goals, with five more than Patrik Laine.

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In a league where scoring is at a premium, the Great Eight has been lighting the lamp with extreme consistency. During his rookie year, he scored 52 goals and in his 13 years as a professional hockey player, he has dipped under 40 goals just three times, one of them being the lockout-shortened year (he was on pace for 55).

In 1,034 games played, he has 635 goals, averaging 0.6 goals a game, and has hit the 50 goal plateau 7 times. Entering Saturday’s match against the Buffalo Sabres, Ovechkin has 28 goals in 31 games and is on pace for 74 goals this season. In his last 13 games, he has 14. This man is a goal scoring machine and has been this way his entire career.

As of right now, he is 15th all-time in NHL scoring, five goals behind Dave Andreychuk who is 14th on that list, and 259 goals behind Wayne Gretzky who has 894. Can he catch number 99?

Let’s be conservative and say that at 33 years old, Ovechkin finishes the season with 50 goals. He will then reach 657 goals, 237 behind Gretzky. If Ovi averages 40 goals a season, he will be able to catch the Great One in less than six seasons. If he averages 30, it will take eight seasons.

His raw skills are there and if he can remain healthy for the next few seasons, he has a genuine shot at becoming the greatest scorer of all time. Ovechkin has proven time and time again that he can score in this league. When he first entered, goal scoring was on a decline and yet he still managed to light the lamp 52 times. In 2007-2008, he scored a career-high 65 goals and won the Hart, Art Ross, Maurice Richard Trophy, and the Lady Byng.

When Connor McDavid paved the way for young, fast players in 2015, it seemed that the game was going to pass Ovechkin. He responded with his third consecutive 50+ goal season and showed that he was still a force to be reckoned with.

After winning the Stanley Cup, partying all season, and turning 33, everyone assumed that he would take a step back and yet he has exploded onto the scene with six goals in his last two games and 28 goals in 31.

Since 2005, the league’s landscape has changed drastically but one thing has remained consistent: Ovechkin’s ridiculous scoring ability. If you made a montage of all of Ovechkin’s goals, most of them would be from the same spot with the same shot and they would all have the same result. His shot is truly special and even though everyone knows it’s coming, there is no way to stop it.

In the NHL’s hardest shot contest, Ovechkin’s clocked at over 101 miles an hour. If that was a car on a Canadian highway, it would be pulled over for speeding. With traffic in front of the net, a goaltender has no chance of stopping that. His pure strength, combined with his accuracy makes him one of the greatest goal scorers of all time and at just 33 years old, he just might become the greatest.