Washington Capitals: Top 3 key players to watch against Penguins

#1 Alex Ovechkin

After being held scoreless in his first two games, Alex Ovechkin finally broke through on Sunday with his first goal of the season. The goal also marked the 36th of his career against the Penguins, the seventh most goals he has against a single franchise.

Additonally, it was the 707th goal of his career. Now he needs just two goals to pass Mike Gartner for seventh place on the NHL’s all time goals list. A 30 goal season would propel Ovechin to 736 goals which would pass Gartner (708), Phil Esposito (717) and Marcel Dionne (731) for fifth place on the NHL’s all time goal scoring list. It would leave Ovechkin just six goals shy of passing Brett Hull (741) for fourth.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1350859979339702272

Ovechkin has a career goals per game average of 0.61 which is the highest among players with at least 700 career goals. Ovechkin has reached the 30 goal mark in each of his 15 NHL season, including 32 goals in 2013 when teams played a 48 game schedule. His 15 career 30 goal campaigns only trail Gartner (17) for most in league history. His 15 consecutive 30 goal seasons are tied with Gartner and Jaromir Jagr for the longest such run by an NHL player.

Those are our top 3 players to watch tonight. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington and NBCSN. Enjoy the game Caps fans!