Alex Ovechkin continues to climb atop the NHL history mountain and on Sunday at Capital One Arena in a Washington Capitals 4-2 win over the Seattle Kraken, the Great Eight sealed it with a backhand empty net goal.
Point number 1,600 and nine more from Wayne Gretzky
The goal came in the aftermath of a Connor McMichael one that gave the Caps a late lead. Then the Kraken pulled their goalie Joey Daccord and the crowd rose to their feet. Once Ovechkin got the puck along the boards he flicked it backhand style into the open cage. Then found his son Sergei in the front row.
Dylan Strome, who had a milestone of his own as he suited up for his 500th NHL game, said this:
"We all know what's happening and how historic it is. It's incredible. We obviously want to get him on the ice. He does a great job of finding ways to get open. "Dylan Strome
Ovechkin's goal was the 886th of his career and came at 18:31 of the third period and he reached the mark of 1,600 in his 1,474th game. He has 33 goals with 18 games left and a goals per game rate of 0.69 putting him on pace to break the mark on April 10 against the Carolina Hurricanes. He became the 11th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 career points.
"I think it's our second game when we have a slow start. I think all four lines kind of ways sleepy, bu it's a good thing the first shift in the second period kind of woke us up, and you can see in the third period we had plenty of chances to score. "Alex Ovechkin
There might not be anything harder than stoping a shot from Alex Ovechkin. His top shot speed is 157.89 kph while his average speed in kph is 109.82. That is good for the 99 and 97 percentile, respectively per NHL Edge.
Ovechkin and the Caps now hit the road. They have won four in a row and Ovechkin is at 886 goals in his career. That's nine away from the record. Single digits.
First stop on the three game California road trip is the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night at 10 p.m. eastern on Monumental Sports Network. They'll then face the Los Angeles Kings Thursday night and then finally the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.