Last season, Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL's all-time goal record previously held by Wayne Gretzky, scoring goal No. 895 against the New York Islanders. Now, the Washington Capitals captain has become the first player ever to reach 900 regular-season goals. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals/latest-news/ovechkin-scores-900th-career-nhl-goal-against-blues] The Capitals' former VP of communications, Nate Ewell, shares an early story of Alex Ovechkin. He accomplished this feat with a highlight-reel goal against the St. Louis Blues [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues] on Wednesday night. Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun fired a shot on net that missed and hit the back boards. From there, Ovechkin received the puck, spun clockwise and took a backhand shot without looking at the net. It beat Jordan Binnington. The Capitals players left the bench to celebrate their captain's historic goal. Binnington, meanwhile, grabbed the puck from his glove, put it in his pants and returned to the crease. [https://x.com/GinoHard_/status/1986250033029669344] Linesman Michel Cormier went over to talk to Binnington, who then took the puck out of his pants and gave it to him. However, while Ovechkin owns the goal record and is the first to reach the 900 mark, there’s still another goals record to chase. Ovechkin also has 161 playoff goals. With that, his total number of goals in the regular season and playoffs are 977. Gretzky, on the other hand, has 1,016 goals when combining regular-season and post-season totals. That should be Ovechkin’s next task. Realistically, if he can remain healthy, there’s no reason why Ovechkin can’t reach that number, as he’s just 39 goals away. That means he could knock off another Gretzky record, as early as this season. The Story Of The Ovechkin-Crosby Rivalry And His Quest To His First Stanley Cup [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/543c630d-9031-4c87-a17e-509a445d7b70.jpeg] The Story Of The Ovechkin-Crosby Rivalry And His Quest To His First Stanley Cup A former VP of communications for the Washington Capitals discusses Alex Ovechkin entering the NHL as an "infectious, lovable character" whose rivalry with Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby evolved in three stages. [https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/the-story-of-the-ovechkin-crosby-rivalry-and-his-quest-to-his-first-stanley-cup] Last year, Ovechkin scored 44 goals in 65 regular-season games. If he could keep three-quarters of that scoring pace while playing 82 games, he would still be on pace to reach 41 goals. However, the Russian is 40 years old now, and his ability to skate and remain healthy gets more difficult with age. Nonetheless, if Ovechkin can beat Gretzky’s complete total of 1,016 goals, it will be even easier to call ‘The Great Eight’ the best goal-scorer in NHL history. The Capitals will hold a pre-game ceremony on Nov. 26 to commemorate not only Ovechkin's 900th goal but also his 1,500th game, which he reached on Oct. 25. He's just the eighth player to play 1,500 games with one franchise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/49970f73-9744-4944-b6f9-edc5f963eaaf.png] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
