Washington Capitals: Can Alex Ovechkin catch Wayne Gretzky?

Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin continues to score at a ridiculous rate. With last night’s goal, he has hit the 50th mark yet again. This begs the question – is Wayne Gretzky’s previously untouchable career goals record suddenly touchable?

On Saturday evening, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored his 50th and 51st goal. He made Vezina candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy look like a beer leaguer. This marked Ovechkin’s eighth 50+ goal season of his 14-year career and his 133rd multi-goal game (eighth all time).

After winning the first Stanley Cup of his career and partying all summer, combined with turning 33, it was thought The Great Eight would take a while to get back on track. Instead, Ovechkin opened the 2018-19 season with four goals in the first three games.

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So far, he has recorded six hat tricks this season, with 24 on his career (10th all time). Currently, Ovechkin has 658 goals in 1081 career NHL games. That’s .609 goals a game (sixth all time) and higher than Wayne Gretzky‘s .601. If Ovechkin plays the same amount of games The Great One did (1487) at the same pace, he would hit 905 goals, 11 more than number 99’s 894.

Obviously, The Great Eight’s goals per game will regress as he gets older. However, longevity is important and Ovechkin appears to have this on his side. He has made a living off of one-timers at the face-off dot.

When Ovechkin is 40 years old, even if Father Time catches up to him by then, the Capitals could easily just make him a power-play specialist and he can rack up goals from there (he already does).

It will take Ovechkin less than eight 30-goal seasons to reach Gretzky and he’s only 33 years old. As he’s shown time and time again, he’s not slowing down any time soon. Another 50 goal season would make Gretzky’s previously untouchable record touchable. As long as he remains healthy for the next ten years, Ovechkin has a realistic shot at passing Gretzky for most goals in NHL history.

Back in October, Elliotte Friedman did an interview with Ovechkin, talking about the celebrations and the Stanley Cup. Elliotte said that Ovi would never have to answer another question again and the Great 8 had this to say – “Well you have to figure out what’s the next question for me”.

A Stanley Cup repeat has been on Ovechkin’s mind since he lifted it in June. It’s this hunger for more – to constantly seek to get better – which separates the good from the great. A Stanley Cup is fantastic, but two would be even better. Scoring 49 goals is good, but hitting 50 for the 8th time is even better.

His celebration when the 50th goal went past Vasilevskiy says it all. This man is on a mission to become the greatest goalscorers and hockey players of all time and no one can stop him.