The Great 8 continues his push toward history!
Washington Capitals captain and future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin continues his historic pursuit, inching even closer to Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record thanks to his two-goal performance on Wednesday night against the Nashville Predators.
Ovechkin continued his scoring streak, having lit the lamp for the fifth straight game. He's now reached 861 goals and is just 33 away from tying Gretzky's mark of 894.
Ovechkin explained that not only is he happy winning games, but that it's fun playing on the top line with linemates Aliaksei Protos and Dylan Strome, via The Washington Post.
“I’m always have fun. But when you winning games, when you producing opportunities to have a chance to score goals, it’s always fun to play. Right now we have a connection with Pro and [Strome]. Hope we are going to continue to play like that.”
Ovechkin and the Capitals, who are 9-3-0 after their latest win, find themselves in second place overall in the Metropolitan Division. They next hit the ice on Friday against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins at Capital One Arena.
Alex Ovechkin is now only goals away from Gretzky
Ovechkin has cemented himself as the best goal scorer of the NHL's modern era. And it appears that he's gotten back to his usual scoring prowess that was absent for much of the first half of last season which saw him score only nine goals in his first 44 games; he rebounded and finished with 31 on the season.
And in his pursuit of history, he has the full support of Gretzky, who believes that the record will be broken before long, via NHL.com.
“Oh yeah, of course,” Gretzky said last month. “It's just a matter of time, whether it's late this year, early next year, whenever. I mean, he's a great player. He's a great goal scorer.”
Ovechkin also became the third player in League history to reach the 800-goal mark when he did so against the New Jersey Devils in December of 2022.
