Alex Ovechkin made NHL history and he’s not done yet
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports
Capitals dominate Canadians behind Alex Ovechkin hat trick by Michael Marzzaco
Over a week ago. It was when we witnessed the story of Alex Ovechkin. Washington Capitals fans rejoiced. NHL fans tip their hats respectfully. Ovechkin passed Gordie Howe.
From now on, only Wayne Gretzky is in the crosshairs of the Big Eight.
Thursday night, he continued the hunt with the Caps’ first goal of the night for career goal 803 and his 23rd of the season.
Let’s go back to the 802nd goal. The Caps had the puck on the ice and the Winnipeg Jets pulled their goaltender. To everyone’s gasps, Ovechkin passes the puck to Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov sends it back to Ovechkin and he returns it for an empty net goal that knocked the house down.
Ovechkin said:
“It’s the kind of situation where if you have a chance to take it, you take it. I give it to Kuzy, and he says, ‘I don’t want to take it.’ But afterwards, it’s special.
Kuznetsov added:
“I will probably feel bad if I score there and half the world will probably be so mad at me. You know, I got a lot of haters…reputation, whatever.
Saturday afternoon in the final game of 2022, Ovechkin capped off a historic year with another hat trick to his resume. Again, it hasn’t finished yet and won’t be any time soon.
2022 has seen Ovechkin climb the ranks to third place and now second place.
It was Ovechkin’s 30th career hat trick. He scored 37 goals in 53 career games against the Canadiens. When asked if he liked playing with this particular team, Ovechkin replied, “No, I just like playing hockey.”
Ovechkin finished the year scoring six times in four games for 26 this season. He is on course to score 50 goals this season and if he does reach the mark, it will be the 10th time in his career history to have passed Gretzky.
But in addition to individual accomplishments, there were more impressive team accomplishments with Ovi in the lead. The Caps have won 11 of their last 13 games to move back into playoff position and should soon recover Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie from their respective injuries.
But while we wait for them, we’ll be eagerly watching what the Big Eight does next. He’s a man on a mission and he knows what to do in the next two seasons.