Steven Stamkos on Alex Ovechkin: ‘He’s going to go down as the guy with the most goals ever at some point here’

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored in his fifth-straight game on Thursday, finding the back of the net against the Nashville Predators and tallying the game-winning goal.

For Ovechkin, the goal was his 861st of his career, bringing him to within 33 of Wayne Gretzky for a share of the NHL’s all-time goals record.

After the Predators’ 3-2 loss to the Capitals, Steven Stamkos, who signed a four-year, $32 million contract with Nashville over the summer, spoke about Ovechkin’s excellence at age 39. The former Lightning captain and number one overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft has played many games against the legendary winger during his career and has 559 goals himself — the 29th most in NHL history.

“I mean, listen, he’s going to go down as the guy with the most goals ever at some point here,” Stamkos said. “I’ve been fortunate to play my entire career against him and played a lot of hockey being in the same division for a while. He’s just a generational goal scorer. A guy that I’ve always looked up to in terms of how he scores goals. It’s the hardest thing to do in the NHL, score. He’s found a way to do it — soon, better than any one ever.”

The 34-year-old forward added, “Obviously, to keep doing it at this age is very impressive. It sucked he scored against us tonight and got the game-winner, but a guy that is still producing at this age is impressive.”

Stamkos matched Ovechkin on the score sheet, finding the back of the net in the second period via a great passing play in the Predators’ offensive zone.

Former Capitals forward Andrew Brunette, who is now head coach of the Predators, told reporters post game he had a premonition Ovechkin would score.

“Well you knew it was coming,” Brunette said. “When you’re on the bench, I guess I’ve seen him too many times, I’ve played against him, I’ve coached against him, I’ve watched him. He just finds that and when it’s on his stick it’s gone. Big time shot from arguably the greatest goal scorer of all time.”