Predicting what Alexander Ovechkin will do in January

We’re almost midway through January and the Washington Capitals have yet to win a game. Maybe that changes today against the New York Islanders, maybe it doesn’t. One thing though is for sure, Alexander Ovechkin needs to score. He has yet to this month believe it or not.

Only Ovechkin and John Carlson have appeared in every game for the Caps this season. Ovechkin has 24 goals and 28 assists for 52 points but none of those goals have come this month as the team has lost four in a row. In those four losses Ovechkin had two assists.

Ovechkin had nine goals in the month of October, 10 in November, and five in December. There’s eight games left in the month of January. His five goals in December came in 10 games. He had nine goals in eight games in the first month of the season. So what kind of a number can we expect Ovechkin to finish with?

I think if Ovechkin can score in one of these two games coming up he’ll be on his way to ending the month of January with 5-6. That would bring his number up to the 29-30 range and set himself up for a chance to reach 50 or more the rest of the way. Now if Ovechkin doesn’t score at all this month, then that could be alarming.

Ovechkin is currently on a 115 point pace and a 62 assist pace over an 82 game season which would be single season career highs in both categories. No player in NHL history has recorded 115 or more points in a season at age 36 or over.

So far Ovechkin has passed Marcel Dionne and Brett Hull on the NHL’s all time goals list and currently has Jaromir Jagr in his sights needing just 13 to pass him. Ovechkin is in fourth place right now with 754 goals.

On Dec. 31 vs. the Detroit Red Wings, Ovechkin scored his 275th career power play goal which passed Dave Andreychuk for the most in NHL history. He also tallied his 119th career game winning goal which passed Phil Esposito for the third most in NHL history. He also recorded career point 1,370 which passed Johnny Bucyk for 25th on the NHL’s all time points list.

Ovechkin now sits three points shy of passing Mike Modano (1,374) for the 24th most points in NHL history. He could very well get that with two goals and an assist today. The Caps take on the Islanders at 2 p.m. on NHL Network and NBC Sports Washington.