It has been an interesting season for the Washington Capitals, Alexander Ovechkin. The 38-year-old is going for Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record of 894. Ovechkin currently sits at 836 goals, 59 goals away from being the greatest goal-scorer of all time.
Alexander Ovechkin: Goal Resurgence
Alexander Ovechkin has had a resurgence of late. He has scored a goal in six straight games after a brutally slow start to the season. Since December 30th, he has points in 14 of 16 games, though he only has two multi-point games in that span. The Capitals are still struggling as a team, with a record of 23-21-8. They have lost 12 games during this span.
In 2023-2024, Ovechkin has four games without a shot on goal. That had not happened even once since his rookie season back in 2005-2006. His shots on goal are way down on the season. He is pacing for 280 shots this season when he usually is well over 300 and into 330s. If he doesn’t shoot, he can’t score.
Until this recent goal streak, Ovechkin was struggling through one of his worst seasons, with only eight goals and 21 assists in 43 games this season. He is now up to 14 goals and 23 assists in 49 games, but that is a far cry from his career averages. His lowest goal output in a season came in the 2020-2021 season when he had 24 goals in 45 games.
Alexander Ovechkin: Projecting When He Could Break It
Originally, it was projected that Ovechkin would break Gretzky’s all-time goals record sometime during the 2024-2025 season. But that is a big question mark after this season’s slow start. He is going to need to keep up this hot streak to finish off the second half of the season and then come out hot next year if he is going to have a chance to break the record before the 2025-2026 season, which would make him 40 years old for that year.
Gretzky’s goal record might be the most difficult hockey record in history to break. He played 20 seasons in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and New York Rangers, finally retiring after the 1998-1999 season at 38 years old.
Alexander Ovechkin still has some work to do to surpass “The Great One”. This season, Ovechkin has not been the player we are used to watching on the ice, but he is starting to heat up for fantasy purposes and chipping away at the all-time goals scored record.
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