Alex Ovechkin finally did it. He reached 895 career goals to surpass Wayne Gretzky. And now he can focus on a big goal this upcoming spring. For this piece, let's look at the Washington Capitals captain's postseason stats.
How does Alex Ovechkin fare in the playoffs?
Looking at the leaderboards on Hockey Reference we were intrigued as you were. We found Ovechkin ranked 15th ina three way tie with Patrick Marleau and Esa Tikkanen wih 72 career playoff goals. Tikkanen as you remember did spend a brief part of his career with the Caps and was on that 1998 Eastern Conference championship team.
Out of Ovechkin's 72 goals none were bigger than the playoff goals he scored in 2018 to guide the Caps to their first Stanley Cup title. That year saw him score 15 goals and add 12 assists for 27 points.
Another good playoff performance were his first two trips to the big dance. Back then he was just 22 and 23 years old. In a first round loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games, Ovi had four goals and five assists for nine points.
In 2009 Ovechkin helped ignite a 3-1 series comeback to defeat the New York Rangers before falling just short to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games. In those 14 combined games, Ovechkin had 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points.
Among active players, Ovechkin's 72 goals are second in the League behind Joe Pavelski who has 74. Crosby is just behind Ovechkin with 71 goals. Ovechkin's 15 goals in the Cup run of 2018 led all scorers. It also helped him earn the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
As for assists in the playoffs, Ovechkin isn't quite top 10 or 15 and Nicklas Backstrom is ranked higher but Ovi still has 69 career playoff assists which is still a nice number. The most helpers he had were 12 which was during that 2018 Stanley Cup run.
Ovechkin will enter this postseason hungier than ever. The Caps have yet to win a playoff series since hoisting the Cup in 2018 but this team right now is probably the best squad they've had in these parts since then. So really it's all up to them as they'll be seeded in a good spot with home ice advantage when the big dance begins.