Ovechkin is rooting for Matthews to make history and pass him for the single-season goals record in the salary cap era.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews is putting together a historic season in the goal-scoring department, and Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is here for it.
Matthews, who has 55 goals in 66 games, is on pace to finish with 68 goals, which would eclipse Ovechkin for the most goals in a single season (65) in the salary cap era (2005-present).
"It's great," Ovechkin said. "I'm happy for him, hope he gets it. Maybe 70, you never know. He's a special player, it's fun to watch."
The 38-year-old said that it's easy to root for Matthews given his talent, and that it will be good for the game if Matthews can break some of the benchmarks that he set for the modern era of scoring.
"Of course (I root for him). First of all, fans gonna love it," Ovechkin said. "He's gonna make history, first guy who's gonna score 70, you know? It's pretty cool, fun to watch."
When asked about how much harder scoring has gotten in today's game compared to the past, Ovechkin noted that there was a lot of intensity back then, and that now, it's more difficult to find twine — though he doesn't think that's the case for Matthews.
"For him, it's easy," Ovechkin grinned. "For us, it's kind of hard. We try to find a way, find empty nets, rebounds, whatever."
As for shutting him down, Ovechkin isn't too worried about that matchup, since that's the likely job for Nic Dowd's line.
"I'm not gonna play against him," he laughed.
But at the end of the day, the Capitals captain does want to see Matthews replicate his greatness from the early 2000s.
"How I said, I'm cheering for him," the Russian reiterated. "He"s a fun player to watch."