One week ago the Washington Capitals lost but Alex Ovechkin had one hell of a game with two goals and two assists. One of his assists was so filthy it’ll be on highlight reels to come. Entering today’s first Caps game in a week, he will be the player to watch against the Penguins.
Ovechkin’s 62 career points (36 goals, 26 assists) against the Penguins rank first among active players. Ovechkin’s two goals and two assists last Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers were a season high four points. Ovechkin has 711 career goals and now sits seven shy of passing Phil Esposito (717) for the sixth most goals in NHL history.
Per the game notes, Ovechkin’s 0.61 goals per game is the highest among the NHL’s eight players who have achieved the 700 goal milestone. Ovechkin now has 146 career multi goal games, 62 more multi goal games than the next closest player since Ovechkin’s rookie season in 2005-06 (Sidney Crosby: 84).
Ovechkin’s two goals on Feb. 7 marked his first goals scored against Flyers goaltender Carter Hart, the 144th different goaltender Ovechkin has scored against. There have been 6,450 players in the history of the NHL who have scored 144 or fewer goals in their career.
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Ovechkin has 15 consecutive 30 goal seasons and he only trails Mike Gartner by two for the 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.
Ovechkin was robbed of four games but is still off to a good start this season with five goals and seven assists for 12 points. In yesterday’s practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex before departing for Pittsburgh, Ovechkin skated on the top line with Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson. He also skated on the top power play unit, look for a goal to come right from his office.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette appeared on 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies earlier this week and talked about what he’s learned from Ovechkin since coaching him:
"“When you coach someone from afar you don’t really get to know them as a person. When you’re on the other bench, you don’t get to know them. While I’ve said hi to him and had quick conversations with him through the course of my time coaching, now obviously it’s different. I think for me he’s just a real good human being. A nice person. Sometimes that gets lost because you think of him as the top goalscorers to ever play the game. In the end, he’s got a great personality. He’s a good human being. It’s been really good working with him.”"
You can catch Ovechkin and the Caps today at 3 p.m. on NBC. Whether you have a date or not this Valentine’s Day at least there’s Caps hockey.