The Great 800: Alex Ovechkin Becomes Third NHLer to Hit 800 Career Goals
Alex Ovechkin scored his third goal of the night to reach the 800-goal mark on Tuesday.
Alex Ovechkin is the third player in the 105-year history of the NHL to hit the 800-goal mark.
The Washington Capitals captain reached the mark in one of the best ways possible – a hat trick. After a scramble in front of the Chicago Blackhawks’ net, Anthony Mantha saw Ovechkin swooping in and flipped the puck over, and the 'Great 8' retrieved it and swept it into the open net.
The Capitals players emptied the bench to congratulate their captain as hats in Chicago’s United Center came flying over the glass.
Ovechkin joins Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky as the only players to reach the legendary milestone, and he’s now one goal short of tying Howe for second on the all-time list.
It took 1,305 regular-season games for Ovechkin to reach the milestone, quicker than Howe's 1,748 games and behind Gretzky's 1,116 matches.
Not only that, but he went from 700 goals to 800 in 162 games, which is quicker than either player before him by at least 69 games – Gretzky did it in 231 games while Howe accomplished it in 256 games, according to the Washington Capitals.
Considering how incredibly dominant Gretzky was at scoring goals and putting up points in the NHL, scoring 100 goals at a quicker pace than The Great One is an impressive achievement for Ovechkin.
The 37-year-old Moscow native leads his team in points this season with 33, which is 11 more than second-place Dylan Strome after Tuesday night's 7-3 win over Chicago. And although he entered the game tied for ninth in the NHL in goals, he shot up to sixth place, tied with Bo Horvat for 20 goals. Mark Scheifele also got a hat trick Tuesday for the Winnipeg Jets, moving him up to fifth place with 21 goals.
Ovechkin couldn't have made it this far without his consistency. He's scored at least 30 goals in every season except for the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 campaign, where he still had 24 goals in 45 games. He's reached at least 50 goals in a season nine times, which is tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the most in NHL history.
With the hat trick, he's on pace for 52 goals, which means he could possibly check off another all-time record on his way to the main destination – passing Gretzky's 894 goals for the most ever in the league. With 94 goals to go and three more years left on his contract, he's looking more likely to break the record with every red light lit.
Ovechkin already ranks first all-time in power-play goals with 292, overtime goals with 25, road goals with 409, go-ahead goals with 270, game-tying goals with 140 and game-opening goals with 136, per the Capitals.
He's known for his one-timer slap shot from his office in the left faceoff circle, but all three goals against Chicago came from his nose for the net.
On his first goal of the night, he stood near the bottom of the faceoff circle as John Carlson chipped the puck from the boards toward the net. Chicago D-man Seth Jones gave Ovi a nudge from behind as the puck hit the traffic, but as it dropped, Ovechkin turned around and whacked it past a surprised Petr Mrazek. That made it 1-0 for Washington 24 seconds into the game.
He also scored Washington's second goal almost eight minutes later on the power play. Mrazek challenged the shot in the slot by Conor Sheary, but the puck was deflected right to Ovechkin at one of his other spots at the side of the net, where he potted the goal into the empty cage.
He also recorded a primary assist on Trevor van Riemsdyk's rebound goal to make it 3-1 for Washington, although, of course, it came on Ovechkin's initial shot toward the net.
The Capitals sorely need their captain and franchise leader in regular season and playoff games played, points and goals to keep producing as they fight to climb back into a playoff spot. They're currently sixth in the Metropolitan Division with 34 points in 31 games, one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference held by the New York Rangers with a game in hand.