Honestly, we thought we would have a little more time to put this little post together. As in an entire off-season. After all, when Alex Ovechkin missed 16 games earlier this year with a broken leg we were among those who thought his quest would come up just a little short this season. Instead, Ovi turned back the clock and started potting goals like a 23-year-old, not a 39-year-old.
All he did was knock out 27 goals in 43 games since he returned on December 28th. Yes, one of those games was against the Lightning, and he scored the lone Washington goal in a 3-1 Tampa Bay victory. That goal was one of 51 he has scored in his career against the Bolts, so suffice it to say that without the Lightning, he isn’t celebrating his historic milestone today.
The head-first dive was a nice celebration, but let’s not kid anyone – the hot stick celebration is one of the best of all time. And it came against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning gave more to the cause than being the victim of an awesome celebration. The first time he found the back of the net against Tampa Bay was on 10-28-2005, just 11 games into his career. After holding him off of the scoreboard 12 days earlier, Sean Burke was beaten twice in a 4-2 Bolts win (Dan Boyle, Marty St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier, and Vinny Prospal scored for the Bolts). Over 82 more games against Tampa Bay during his career, Ovechkin has added 49 more goals and 46 assists while averaging 21:16 of ice time against them.
That’s the highest ice time he’s averaged against any team, and the 51 total goals ranks fourth behind Atlanta/Winnipeg (57), Philadelphia (52), and Carolina (52). The only team he’s faced in the regular season more often is Carolina with 92 games. Long live the Southeastern Division.
Ovechkin has found the back of the net in 38 of his 83 games against the Bolts, while scoring multiple goals in 11 of them. He has only one hat trick, and in that game he pumped home four goals. Throwing in his assists and Ovi has points in 68% of the games he’s played against the Lightning. Not too shabby.
He’s done most of his damage in D.C., but The Ice Palace/St. Pete Times Forum/Tampa Bay Time Forum/Amalie Arena has been kind to him as well as Paul Porter has called his name out 18 times in 40 games in Tampa.
So, which Lightning goaltenders have spent the most time digging the pucks out of the net, victims of an Ovechkin goal? As one might guess, Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the list with 12 goals against. Ben Bishop comes in second, but to his credit, four of those came in one game. Here’s how the total list breaks down:
| Andrei Vasilevskiy | 12 |
| Ben Bishop | 9 |
| Mike Smith | 4 |
| Sean Burke | 3 |
| Johan Holmqvist | 3 |
| Mike McKenna | 3 |
| Dwayne Roloson | 2 |
| John Grahame | 2 |
| Kari Ramo | 2 |
| Marc Denis | 2 |
| Antero Niittymaki | 1 |
| Dan Ellis | 1 |
| Dustin Tokarski | 1 |
| Olaf Kolzig | 1 |
| Empty Net | 5 |
By far the funniest name on the list is Olaf Kolzig. The man who played 16 seasons in Washington and just eight games with the Bolts was victimized by the Great 8 in the only game he ever played against him.
Kolzig assisted on five of Ovechkin’s goals, which ranks 8th among former or current Lightning players in regards to assists on Ovi’s goals. Michael Nylander leads the list with 13, and current assistant coach Jeff Halpern has 7, but also assisted on the very first goal of the future hall-of-famer’s career.
Alex Ovechkin has been scoring goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning for almost 20 years, which in and of itself is pretty impressive. Chances are they aren’t done with him. He’s under contract for one more year, and if he keeps rolling the way he has been this year, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him sign up for a couple of more years to chase a nice round number – 1,000.
Congratulations, Mr. Ovechkin. Smashing a record once thought to be unbreakable is pretty impressive. To do it the way he’s done it, by being one of the top goal-scorers in the league at the age of 39 is even more impressive. He isn’t just hanging on, playing out a string of games just to get a record. He’s doing it for one of the best teams in the league, and is outscoring players that are literally half his age.
Is there any reason to believe he’s going to stop anytime soon? So, expect him to be chasing even more immortality some time next season. If history is any indication, he’ll add to his goal totals when he faces the Lightning.
Now, every goal he’s scored so far in his career.
