WASHINGTON, March 31. /TASS/. Russian superstar forward and Washington Capitals’ captain Alexander Ovechkin scored another goal on Sunday night against the Buffalo Sabres, putting him just four goals shy of Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record.
Despite Ovechkin’s one goal and two assists against the Sabres, his team eventually lost at home 8-5. The Caps have now dropped three in a row after consecutive losses to the Winnipeg Jets (3-2 in OT) and Minnesota Wild 4-2). Last week, the Washington Capitals became the first team this season to clinch a playoff berth.
"We lost three in a row, and right now it’s a good thing it’s happening right now and not in the playoffs," the NHL’s official website quoted Ovechkin as saying after the match. "But we just have to bounce back and we just have to find our way to win the games."
The Capitals’ Sunday night foes, the Buffalo Sabres, are currently at the bottom of the NHL Eastern Division standings with a record of 31-36-6.
"Some things we do early, especially with the puck against this team, that we had talked about and failed to execute," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said after the match against the Sabres.
"So, it puts you in spot where, ‘Uh-oh. We’ve got to get this thing corrected quickly.’ … We get out of the first period [tied], which I thought was a positive, and then it comes off the rails in the second," he added.
With Ovechkin now so close to the record, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Gretzky himself plan to be in the arena for every one of the Russian’s games going forward as he chases history.
"I think when we get down to five, certainly no less than four, I’ve got to start following him around, and The Great One is going to be doing that as well," Bettman announced to the media in late December. "And I think we’ve concluded that either five or four."
"We can’t take any chances because when he gets that close, my guess is he’s going to be so focused it’s going to happen in a multi-goal game," Bettman added.
Ovechkin now has 37 goals and 26 assists in 57 games this season. Despite missing 16 games earlier in the season with a broken leg, Ovechkin is still in the top-10 in the NHL in goals this year, and is now second in NHL history with 890 goals, trailing only the Great One himself Wayne Gretzky of Canada, who had 894 goals in his NHL career.
Canadian-American ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky's career spanned twenty seasons over four different NHL clubs. From 1979 and 1999, Gretzky, considered by many to be the greatest hockey player of all-time, broke numerous NHL records, including the one for goals scored.
Ovechkin, 39, is signed with the Washington Capitals through 2026. The team, which already qualified for the playoffs, has nine games left in the regular season.
Ovechkin has played his entire NHL career with the Washington Capitals, who selected him with the 42nd pick in the 2004 draft. The Russian superstar led the Caps to a Stanley Cup title in 2018, the only one of his career, and the only one in the club's history.
In 2008, 2012 and 2014, "Ovie," as he is called by his fans, won gold medals at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships to go along with his two silver and four bronze medals at the world championships.
During a rally of the newly-elected US president’s supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington on January 20, US President Donald Trump called Russian hockey player Alexander Ovechkin "a great player."