Alex Ovechkin was named the NHL's First Star of the Week and deservedly so with five goals in four games to get to the 895 finish line.
Alex Ovechkin continues to get all the accolades and he deserves it after passing Wayne Gretzky's mark for 895. The Washington Capitals captain has become the story of the League this season. Not too bad for a 39 year old in their 20th NHL season.
Ovi gets First Star of the Week plus more
Alex Ovechkin was named the NHL's First Star of the Week for the week ending April 6 as he scored five goals in four games to reach 895 career goals and break the NHL's all time goals record that was previously held by Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin recorded six points with five goals and four assists and scored in all four of the Caps games over the week to get across the finish line.
Ovechkin broke Gretzky's 31 year old record in his 1,487th career game which was the exact same number of games Gretzky finished his career with. He is riding a five game goal streak where he has six goals from March 30 to April 6. He is also the first player in NHL history to record mutliple five game goal streaks at age 39 or older.
On April 4 against the Chicago Blackhawks, Ovechkin tied Gretzky with his 893rd and 894th goals of his career. He opted to stay on the bench for the empty net and instead Ryan Leonard got his first NHL goal. Ovi would break the record on April 6 against the New York Islanders.
Ovechkin has scored 42 goals in 61 games this season which is good for 0.69 goals per games played, a nice rate. That includes 20 goals in his last 27 games. He entered the season 42 goals shy of passing Gretzky and is on pace to finish with 45 goals when the regular season concludes.
If Ovechkin reaches the 45 goal mark, he would pass Gordie Howe for the most goals in a season by a player age 39 or older. He ranks fourth in the NHL in goals despite missing 16 games due to injury. Only Leon Draisaitl, William Nylander, and Tage Thompson have more.
Per NHL Stats, Ovechkin is also on track to become to fifth player in League history to lead his team in goals at age 39 plus and could become the second player in that age range to finish in the top 10 in the NHL in goals. Gordie Howe did so three times.
Ovechkin said after Sunday's game, "When I was tying the record, I still can't beleive it. It was so emotional and it was such a great night; it's something crazy. I just said I'm probably going to need a couple more days or a couple more weeks to realize what does it mean to be number one.
"All I can say is I'm very proud for myself; I'm also proud for my family, for all my teammates that helped me reach that milestone. And for all my coaches, it's huge. It's an unbelievable moment."
Dylan Strome added, "Everyone knew how good of a goal scorer he was for his whole career and then obviously to win the Stanley Cup in 2018, and to have this; there's good things ahead for us, for sure, but for him to have this, I think he's the greatest goal socrer of all time. I think everyone would agree with that now.
"I think it's an incredible honor, and to be even a little part of it is truly incredible. There's not really words you can say to describe what you're feeling at the time; it's like you're almost not even focused on the game when it's happening, because you just want him to score and get it not done with, but for him to do it, and complete it."
"And he's very humble. He doesn't talk about himself, and he doesn't talk about the record. He doesn't say how bad he wants it. It just speaks to his character, of how he conducts himself, and the way he goes about his business. And he's in the history books forever; he already was, but now he's number one and it's cool to be a part of it."
That was a long one from Strome but what he said couldn't have been more true. Ovechkin changed hockey and now he's on top of the mountain.
