Photo: Nick Wass/AP
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored the game’s first goal in the Capitals’ 9-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. It’s the 131st time in his career that he’s scored the game’s first goal, tying him with Brett Hull for second place on the NHL’s all-time list.
The only player who has scored more game-opening goals than Ovechkin is Jaromir Jagr, who has opened the scoring 135 times during his career.
The goal was Ovechkin’s 46th goal of the 2021-22 season and the 776th goal of his career. He ranks fourth in the league for goals scored and is just two goals shy of tying Teemu Selanne for most goals scored by a 36-year-old player.
Alex Ovechkin broke the ice for the @Capitals with his 131st career game-opening goal to climb another NHL all-time scoring list.#NHLStats: https://t.co/vJlw3iC5CI pic.twitter.com/jeWwZqoQC7
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 12, 2022
This milestone joins the other major Ovechkin milestones this year, including passing Marcel Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741), and Jaromir Jagr (766) in career goals. He also passed Dave Andreychuk in power-play goals, tied Gordie Howe in game-winning goals, and is moving steadily up the ranks in NHL career points.
He reached the 1400 NHL point milestone, passing numerous greats this season, most recently Jari Kurri (1,398), Luc Robitaille (1,394), and Brett Hull (1,391), and included players such as Mike Gartner, Guy LaFleur, Johnny Bucyk, Brendan Shanahan, and Dave Andreychuk.
By Diane Doyle
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Ovechkin is going to hold every goal record by the time he hangs up his skates.
He will certainly hold a lot of them. Likely will get the most Game Winning Goals and Multi-Goal games records before he’s done, along with most for a single franchise.