Alex Ovechkin scores twice in St. Louis, increasing his goal total to 863
The Great Eight now needs 31 to tie and 32 to pass Wayne Gretzky for the most all time
On Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues, the Washington Capitals not only put up an eight spot in an 8-1 route, Connor McMichael did not only score twice, Logan Thompson did not only play lights out, but your captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice for his 862nd and 863rd goals of his career to put him 31 behind Wayne Gretzky for the most goals all time.
He's doing all of this at 39 years old and if he can keep up his 0.71 goals per game pace, he can break the record on Feb. 27, 2025 against... the Blues.
Ovi's first goal came at 7:42 into the second period to give the Capitals the lead for good. Dylan Strome glided down the zone, then dished it to Aliaksei Protas down the right wing. Protas then sent a cross ice pass to Ovi who was wide open in his office on the left face off circle.
Ovi caught the puck on his blade and beat Blues goalie Jordan Binnington high to the short side with a hard rip that the puck got caught in the goal's netting which prompted an official to get the puck out.
The 863rd goal came once again against Binnington at 2:09 in the third period on a Caps power play. With some traffic in front of the net, Dylan Strome found Ovechkin all alone on the left side. He fired the puck into the open net with ease.
Those two goals were Ovechkin's second and third scored on Binnington, the 135th different goalie Ovechkin scored on. It also marked Ovechkin's 175th career multi goal game, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (189) for the most in NHL history.
Some more Ovi facts, his first goal of the night turned out to be the game winner which was his second game winning goal this season and 131st of his storied career putting him four away from Jaromir Jagr (135) for the most in NHL history.
Ovechkin's 10 goals this season came 31 games earlier than last season. And he's doing this all after just turning 39 in September.