Alex Ovechkin is achieving milestones by day.
With another goal in Tuesday's 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer extended his own record of 19 30-goal seasons in his 20-year NHL career.
In addition to that, Ovechkin is now three points shy of becoming the 10th player in NHL history to eclipse the 1,600-point mark.
Plus, the three-time MVP became just the fourth player in hockey history—alongside Teemu Selanne, Johnny Bucyk, and Gordie Howe (who accomplished it three times)—to record a 30-goal season at age 39 or older.
But what trumps either of those factoids is what the hockey—and sports world—has been tracking all season: Ovechkin is now 12 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky to become the game's all-time highest goal scorer.
Having sent home fans of the league-leading Washington Capitals into "Ovi! Ovi!" chants after slapping a one-timer past Dan Vladar on the power play 4:52 into the third period, Ovechkin kept the spot light off of himself.
“My linemates and teammates do a pretty good job of finding me out there. I just have to finish it up,” Ovechkin said just two days removed from his 32nd career hat trick.
“A huge goal tonight,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Brings the building alive and gets us back in the game. From almost an impossible angle, but that’s what he does. He finds ways to score goals in big moments and that was an example tonight.”
What makes his season all-the-more special is that Ovechkin missed five weeks of play to a broken fibula he suffered in November. He returned after an unexpectedly expeditious recovery to score four goals in his first five games back.
"It's just a matter of time, whether it's late this year, early next year, whenever," Gretzky told NHL.com earlier this season about Ovechkin's chances of breaking his record. "I mean, he's a great player. He's a great goal scorer."
