Can Alex Ovechkin do it?
Again, who knows? That's why we're here. Alex Ovechkin turned 39 if you're reading this on this fine Tuesday afternoon. As we know, he enters his 20th season in the NHL and will begin the year 42 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history.
Ovechkin made his Capitals debut on Oct. 5, 2005 and is D.C.'s longest tenured athlete. In DC Sports history only Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators and Darrell Green of the Washington Redskins played in at least 20 seasons with the respective team.
The Caps note that while Ovi resumes his chase for the all time goals record he also approaches a major assists milestone as he enters the season three assists shy of 700 career assists and can become the sixth player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
Ovechkin is also 50 points shy of 1,600 career points and 74 games shy of 1,500 games played. It wouldn't surprise us to see him reach the goal mark as early as this season. But even if it takes him two years to reach the milestone that's OK as there's two seasons left on his current contract.