As Washington Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin gets closer to the career goal record of 894 goals held by Hall of Fame Center Wayne Gretzky, it can be easy to focus solely on the destination. But with this series, we hope to remember the journey the Russian Machine has taken to get there.
In continuing to look at the differences between different milestones, this goal has one obvious one in comparison to goals 100 and 200. This goal did not take place in the United States, as it was a late season game where the Capitals headed up north to Canada to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Air Canada Centre (or Scotiabank Arena). Goal number 300 also had one evident differentiator that its predecessors did not, but we will take a look at that one later.
The game started as most hockey games do, with a puck drop. Shortly into the game, Capitals defenseman John Carlson was called with a two-minute minor holding penalty. Unfortunately, at least for the Capitals, Toronto capitalized on that opportunity with a goal by forward Nikolai Kulemin on the back half of the Capitals penalty kill.
The Capitals, similar to how things started in the goal 100 milestone game for Ovechkin, did not take long to respond. Toronto defenseman Matt Lashoff got called for a two-minute minor delaying puck over glass penalty. Right as that power play seemed to be killed, things got worse for the Maple Leafs as forward Joey Crabb got called for a two-minute minor hooking penalty, giving Washington a short window for a five on three opportunity.
With their very limited time, Washington wasted no time. With no one in the building confused on who the puck would go to, Washington moved the puck around with ease, swinging it slowly over to Ovechkin. Found in his office, Ovechkin ripped it with only seconds left in the two-man advantage and past Leafs goalie James Reimer to tie up the game 1-1 and reach the career goal mark of 300.
As mentioned before, there was one clear difference in this milestone game versus the other two. The Capitals and Maple Leafs would go one goal each in the second period with a goalless third period. Overtime would also go scoreless, and it wasn't until the eighth shooter in the shootout of Capitals forward Mike Knuble finding the back of the net, leading to a Capitals shootout win.
The Capitals would go on to end the regular season with a 48-23-11 record reaching the conference semi-finals to then be swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Although another team had bounced Washington early on, redemption would come, but not until later for Ovi and Co.