Ovechkin setting the standard for 'old-guy seasons' as stellar run continues

At some point in the past couple of seasons, Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record of 894 became a question of when rather than if. Ahead of this season — when he needed 42 goals to pass No. 99 — the timeline we discussed was whether or not he could pull it off before the playoffs start in April. Now, with a hat trick on Sunday night, Ovechkin is shifting the conversation again and giving us an excuse to examine his goal-scoring prowess in all kinds of contexts.

With his three-goal game in Washington’s 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, Ovechkin earned a share of the NHL goal-scoring lead with Sam Reinhart and Leon Draisaitl by registering his 13^th tally of the campaign. Last year, Ovi notched goal No. 13 on Feb. 11, just after the all-star break in Toronto. This year, he’s done it a week-and-a-half before American Thanksgiving.

Since Jan. 27 — when Ovechkin potted his ninth goal of the 2023-24 season — he’s scored 36 goals in 53 games. The only player in the NHL to hit paydirt more in 11 months is Kirill Kaprizov with 39 in 51. While Ovechkin is tied for the goals lead, he has a higher goals-per-game mark (0.76) than anyone in the league who has played a dozen games.

The gold standard for old-guy seasons, naturally, belongs to Gordie Howe. ‘Mr. Hockey’ scored 44 goals in his age-40 season in 1968-69. He also netted 39 in his age-39 season, which is the year Ovechkin happens to be in. In recent times, the best season by a player aged 39 or older was the 31 goals put up by 40-year-old Teemu Selanne in 2010-11.

Ovechkin is on pace for 62 right now.

Okay, let’s say he doesn’t get there, but still finds a way to lead the league in goals for the tenth — tenth! — time in his career. That would immediately become one of the greatest individual single-season achievements in NHL history. Only one other player, Bobby Hull, paced the league in goals as many as seven times. Phil Esposito did it six times, while Howe, Gretzky, Maurice Richard and Charlie Conacher accomplished it on five occasions.

If Ovi does it 10 times — he last topped the NHL in 2019-20 — he’ll have as many Rocket Richard Trophies as Gretzky had Art Ross titles for leading the league in points.

On Jan. 26, 1991, Gretzky scored a hat trick on his 30^th birthday. He tallied nine more times that season and a total of 179 times in his 30s. Since he turned 30 on Sept. 17, 2015, Ovechkin has hit the back of the net 391 times (and counting).

If he scores 40 more this year to register a 53-goal season, he’d basically need two 35-goal showings at age 40 and 41 to get to 500 goals after his 30^th birthday.

If Ovechkin competes past his 42^nd birthday — as Joe Thornton, Matt Cullen and Mark Recchi all did in the past 15 years — he’ll surely accumulate 500 post-30 goals. If he plays in the NHL past his 43^rd birthday — as Selanne, Zdeno Chara, Jaromir Jagr, Chris Chelios and Claude Lemieux all did somewhat recently — he’s got a shot at Patrick Marleau’s all-time games played mark of 1,779.

The guy loves hockey. The guy loves goals.

Weekend Takeaways

• Ovechkin and the soaring Caps have justifiably hogged the Metropolitan Division headlines this year, but we’ve got to carve out some space for Carolina’s Martin Necas here. Remember the spring, when Necas’ dad was telling media outlets in Czechia — where Necas and his countrymen won World Championship gold on home soil — that his son wanted to be traded? All signs pointed to that happening in the summer until the 25-year-old inked a two-year bridge deal as an RFA to remain with the Canes. Following his five-point weekend that powered two more wins for Carolina, Necas has 30 points in 17 contests and sits just three back of Nathan MacKinnon for top spot in the entire league. What an incredible showing by a player who, for the right price, probably could have been playing on your team this season.

• At the other end of the Metro, Columbus’ hot start has officially gone up in smoke. Through nine contests, the Jackets were 5-3-1, averaging 3.9 goals per game and surrendering just 2.8. Since then, including Saturday’s 5-1 loss in Montreal, ‘Lumbus is 1-6-1, giving up 4.5 goals a night and has scored more than two goals in a game just once in those eight contests.

• Washington’s first win of the weekend came Friday in Colorado, where they beat the Avs by the same 5-2 score they hung on Vegas 48 hours later. Despite the result — and the fact goalie Alexandar Georgiev is now day-to-day with an upper-body ailment — you wonder if .500 Colorado can pick up some steam. After six months in the NHLPA’s player assistance program, Valeri Nichushkin made his season debut against Washington. (First and foremost, good luck to him during his ongoing recovery). Jonathan Drouin — who was a great fit on the squad last year — also played Friday for the first time since the season opener. Artturi Lehkonen debuted on Nov. 5 and has six points in six games. While Colorado is still a bit banged up, the Avs are starting to see some support for their all-world leaders' return.

The Week Ahead

• Sidney Crosby has three home games this week, so let’s see if he can get off goal No. 599 and hit 600 for his career. If he notches No. 601, he’ll tie Jari Kurri for 20^th all-time.

• Flyers defenceman Erik Johnson — the first-overall pick in 2006 — played career game No. 1,000 on Saturday versus Buffalo and will be honoured during Philly’s home game Monday night against the club he suited up for 717 times and won the 2022 Cup with, the Avalanche.

• Connor Bedard — the first-overall pick in 2023 — will host 2023’s second-overall pick, Leo Carlsson, when the Ducks visit Chicago on Tuesday. Bedard is still stuck on three goals this year and hasn’t hit the back of the net in nine games. Carlsson has five tallies so far and is coming off a two-point night in Friday’s win over the Red Wings.

• Nathan MacKinnon — the NHL’s points leader — will face Ovechkin — tied for the goal-scoring lead — again on Thursday in Washington.

• The NHL will officially hit the quarter-season mark during a big 15-game slate on Saturday. That same night, the Sharks will honour the 2006 Hart Trophy winner, Joe Thornton, by retiring his No. 19. Thornton — the first-overall pick in 1997 — will join Patrick Marleau — the No. 2 pick in 1997 — as the only Sharks to have their numbers retired.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Winnipeg Jets (15-3-0) The offence has hit a mini pothole, getting blanked by the Florida Panthers on Saturday and netting one goal in the Jets’ past two outings. Winnipeg gets another crack at the defending Cup champs on Tuesday in Manitoba.

2. Toronto Maple Leafs (11-6-2) It has become abundantly clear Matthew Knies — who scored his eighth goal of the year in Saturday’s rollicking 4-3 overtime win against Edmonton — is far and away the most important homegrown player the Leafs have inserted into the lineup since Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner were rookies together nine years ago.

3. Calgary Flames (9-6-3) Dustin Wolf’s November: 3-0-1 with a .942 save percentage after blanking the Predators on Friday night.

4. Edmonton Oilers (9-7-2) With Darnell Nurse injured after receiving a hit from Toronto’s Ryan Reaves on Saturday that earned the latter a five-game suspension, the Oilers have called six-foot-five defenceman Josh Brown up from the AHL.

5. Vancouver Canucks (9-5-3) The home struggles continue. Vancouver has just three wins in 10 tries at Rogers Arena this year after losing 5-3 to Nashville Sunday night.

6. Ottawa Senators (8-8-1) In each of their past four losses — including getting worked 4-0 by Carolina on Saturday — the Sens have allowed at least four goals to their opponents.

7. Montreal Canadiens (6-10-2) It may have come against a struggling team, but the Canadiens desperately needed Saturday’s 5-1 win over Columbus. It had been way too long since they were on the right end of a laugher.