Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is chasing the NHL's goal record and has plenty of success against the Montreal Canadiens. Let's look at the numbers.
Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals welcome the Montreal Canadiens to Capital One Arena on Thursday night. According to his career splits on Hockey Reference, tonight will be his 59th game against the Original Six franchise.
Though eight games in 2024-25, The Great 8 has four goals and seven points, bringing his career totals to 857 goals, which is now 37 shy of Wayne Gretzky's record of 894.
As one of the greatest goal scorers in hockey history, Ovechkin has found much success against Montreal, so let's sort through the statistics to see how he's performed against the Canadiens.
256 - It's no secret that Ovechkin is his generation's leader in shots on goal, with 6,653. He's collected 256 against the Canadiens, the 15th most against any opponent. His 14.8 shooting percentage ranks 8th best against opponents.
67 - Ovechkin has scored 67 points against the Canadiens, producing a 1.19 point-per-game average throughout his career.
58 - The Capitals captain is about to play his 59th game against Montreal, which will tie the Toronto Maple Leafs for 12th most against any opponent.
38 - Ovechkin has scored 38 goals against the Canadiens, which accounts for 4% of his career totals. His totals are the 12th-best against any club in the league.
29 - Even though 55% of his career points have come from goals, Ovechkin does have 700 assists, with 29 coming against Montreal, the 10th-best total against a single team.
26 - The Great 8 has scored 26 even-strength goals against Canadiens netminders, which ranks 10th against all 31 teams.
22 - As the winningest goalie in franchise history, with the most games played, Carey Price has surrendered the most goals to Ovechkin in a Canadiens sweater, with 22.
22 - Ovechkin has scored 22 home goals against the Canadiens, achieving the feat under three different arena names, including Verizon Center (10), Capitals One Arena (10), and MCI Center (two).
12 - Everyone knows that Ovechkin is one of the most lethal snipers on the power play, with 36.4% of his career goals coming on the man advantage. He's tallied 12 against Montreal, tied for 10th-most with the Blue Jackets, Panthers, and Islanders.
7 - Seven Montreal goalies have been beaten by Ovechkin during their tenures with the club, led by Price with 22. Next are Cristobal Huet (six), Jake Allen (three), Sam Montembeault (two), Peter Budaj (two), Jaroslav Halak (one), and Al Montoya (one).
3 - Throughout his career, Ovechkin has netted 31 hat tricks, including three against the Canadiens in 2008, 2017, and 2022. Interestingly, he's scored four goals in a game on four occasions, with two contests occurring against Montreal on Jan. 31, 2008, and Oct. 7, 2017.
2 - Ovechkin is the game-winning goal leader in the salary cap era by over 30 lamplighters, but he only has two against Montreal. The Canadiens are one of 27 teams the captain has scored a game-winner against.
1 - Out of his 857 career goals, Ovechkin has 58 empty net goals, scoring one against Montreal on Dec. 28, 2010.
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