As Alex Ovechkin began ramping up toward resuming his pursuit of the NHL’s all-time goals record, some of his Washington Capitals teammates found themselves running the numbers.
Ovechkin needs 27 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky’s career total, and he’s got 48 games left on the Capitals’ schedule to try to get it done this season, starting with Saturday’s visit to Toronto, which the team announced will mark his return.
That equates to a clip of 0.56 goals per game — unquestionably a high bar, particularly for a 39-year-old coming off the longest injury absence of his career.
But it’s not an impossible one to clear.
Ovechkin has scored at a pace beyond that in 14 of his 19 previous NHL seasons, and he was off to the best goal-scoring start of his entire career when he suffered a broken left fibula during an accidental collision with Utah’s Jack McBain in November.
So even with 16 games lost to injury, the Capitals aren’t ruling out a run at the record before the end of 2024-25.
“The pace he was going at, I feel like everything’s in play,” Dylan Strome told The Athletic recently. “This guy does things that you can only imagine.”
“With him, I feel like nothing’s impossible,” added defenseman Rasmus Sandin.
Strome has drawn an assist on 12 of the 15 goals Ovechkin has scored this season. What he noticed was how confident the Capitals captain seemed just before suffering the injury — scoring the 32nd hat trick of his career in Vegas on Nov. 17 and adding two more goals the following night in Utah before getting knocked out of the game by a third-period collision with McBain.
“He had 15 (goals) in 18 (games) and he probably would have had 16 in 18 in that game that he got hurt in,” said Strome.
Ovechkin’s scoring surge saw him become the first NHL player aged 39 or older to score 11 goals in a 10-game span.
It also ramped up the anticipation for his pursuit of Gretzky’s all-time record.
Strome is in his third season with the Capitals and was there the night Ovechkin joined Gretzky and Gordie Howe as the only players in NHL history to hit the 800-goal mark in December 2022, but he said the excitement around Ovechkin’s scoring exploits reached a new level inside the Capitals dressing room this season.
“I’ve noticed a huge difference even compared to last year,” Strome said. “Just really every goal, everyone’s talking about it. At the beginning (of the season) everyone didn’t know if there was going to be a chance to break it this year, and then he started to score and score and score, so then it was like ‘OK, he’s definitely going to break it this year.’ Then he gets hurt.
“So now it’s back to the waiting game. Everyone’s excited, you can tell. When he scores in the road arenas, the place is loud. Everyone wants to see him score, so it’s a cool thing to be a part of and it’s exciting.”
The Capitals have been one of the most pleasant surprises of this season. They managed to go 10-5-1 while Ovechkin was out of the lineup and sit atop the Eastern Conference standings in points percentage (.706).
Welcoming him back to enter the second half will be a shot in the arm, according to head coach Spencer Carbery.
“There is a void with your captain and a personality like Alex Ovechkin not being on the bus, not being in the locker room, not being at morning skates, not being in the meetings,” Carbery said earlier this month. “I can tell you for sure there will be a jolt in energy to our group when (he returns).”
The possibility of him chasing down one of the sport’s most glamorous records is an added bonus.
Ovechkin’s start was so strong that it necessitated a discussion at the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings earlier this month. The league has started to plan for how it will cover and celebrate the milestone in the event that Ovechkin can match Gretzky’s 894 career goals before the end of the season.
“He’s been tremendous this year and, listen, I know how hard it is at that age,” Gretzky said. “It gets tougher and tougher, but he’s hung in there and he’s a trooper. (The goal chase is) good for the sport, it’s great for the game, and hopefully I’m there to shake his hand the night he breaks the record.”
Gretzky has already agreed to join NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on the road to be there in person once Ovechkin gets within striking distance of the record. And teammates will be doing everything in their power to help Ovechkin get there before the playoffs.
“I wouldn’t put it past him to at least be really close to the record,” Strome said. “I feel like if he’s that close, it’s going to happen at the end of this year.
“I hope.”
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
