As Washington Capitals star Left Winger and team Captain Alex Ovechkin gets closer and closer to breaking the all-time goal record of 895 career goals held by Wayne Gretzky, what better to do than look back at some of his other career milestones. However, similar to most other things and situations in life, looking back at the journey can often tell us just as much if not more about the destination than the destination itself can.
Alex Ovechkin entered the NHL in 2004 being selected with the first pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. Being that the NHL was under a league wide lockout during 2004-2005, Ovechkin did not see the ice on his first year after being drafted. This made things all the more interesting when generational Center prospect Sidney Crosby was drafted the next year by the rival Pittsburgh Penguins. Being now in the same division, this not only meant that the two would face off often but made the race for the Calder Memorial Trophy during the 2005-2006 that much more interesting.
Most Calder winners we see nowadays often have point totals anywhere in the 50–75-point range, sometimes reaching the point per game mark. This was not the case for either Ovechkin as they both broke the 100-point mark, with Ovechkin totaling 106 and Crosby reaching 102. Ovechkin, not only having 4 more points but also having 13 more goals, made things very easy for the voters as he took the Calder trophy as he received 124 out of 129 first place votes.
Now back to the regularly scheduled programming, Ovechkin's 100th goal. Like many, Ovechkin had a sophomore slump with 6 less goals and 14 less points in his 2006-2007 campaign. Nonetheless, the Russain Machine was still on a mission.
The Capitals entered their October 12th, 2007, game against the New York Rangers sitting at 3-0 with Ovechkin sitting at a total of 99 career lamp lighting goals. The game started off fast as Ovechkin and the Capitals received a two-minute minor penalty for tripping, which Rangers Center Scott Gomez capitalized (no pun intended) off of as they scored not even two minutes into the game taking a 1-0 lead at home.
Rangers center Chris Drury then was called shortly after for a hooking penalty, which Washington was unable to take advantage of. Not too long after that, the Rangers got called for another hooking penalty, this time on Rangers Defenseman Marek Malik. The Capitals, as most would, made sure to get Ovechkin on the ice for the 5 on 4 opportunity presented to them in hopes to tie up the game early. Ovechkin had plans to take advantage of that.
Trying to line up on in his office, Ovechkin gets the puck but can't get off the one timer. Like he has many times, he slips past the defender going right, catching Ranger's goalie Henrik Lundqvist off balance and slots the puck top right corner for goal number 100, reaching the career three-digit goal mark.
The Capitals would go on to allow 2 more goals in the first period making the score 3-1, which was also the final score of the game itself and the Capitals record directly after. Ovechkin, as we have seen, would go on to light the lamp many more times, now only being 21 goals away from breaking Gretzky's career record of 895. We will soon see if Ovechkin will break the record, but I think the question is more along the lines of "when". Time will tell.