John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images
As if tying and surpassing Gordie Howe as the NHL’s all-time leader in Goals Scored with one franchise wasn’t impressive enough, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has been on an absolute tear in the team’s last handful of games. With Goal No. 788 on Monday night against the Edmonton Oilers, The Great Eight continued his torrid stretch by scoring on yet another new goaltender.
With just five seconds gone by on the Caps’ fourth power play opportunity of the night, Ovechkin potted his eighth goal of the 2022-23 regular season and 788th of his career on assists from Erik Gustafsson and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
An ELECTRIC power play for the Caps tonight 🔥
Ovi with the goal to put Washington up 4-2#GR8 | #788 pic.twitter.com/OrcexoqnZM
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 8, 2022
The goal came against Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, who became the 163rd different goalie to allow an Ovechkin howitzer behind him. He is also the third straight netminder on which the Capitals’ captain has scored on for the first time in the past three contests; it marks the seventh such instance in which this has occurred.
It marks the seventh instance in Ovechkin’s career in which he has scored against a new goaltender in three or more consecutive games and the first since Nov. 24-28, 2008 (Niklas Backstrom, Ondrej Pavelec & Jaroslav Halak).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 8, 2022
Ovechkin is now 12 goals shy of 800 for his career. The goal gave the Caps a 4-2 lead heading into the second intermission.
Here’s a screen shot of Ovechkin’s previous three-game stretches of first-time victims. As you can see, one of those was a five-game streak. #Caps pic.twitter.com/z8j564ysrp
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) November 8, 2022
Ovechkin’s night continued to be eventful, with a prime and impressive opportunity against two Oilers defenders, and a beauty of an assist on a goal by Kuznetsov.
SO close. #CapsOilers pic.twitter.com/QzltGhi17A
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 8, 2022
Don’t look away you might .. MISS SOME MAGIC. Caps up 5-2 with just under 2 minutes to go in the 3rd.
Ovi ➡️ Kuzy#CapsOilers | #GR8 pic.twitter.com/kRc6aE34EH
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 8, 2022
By Michael Fleetwood
YES, I was right. This was the third new goalie notch on Ovi’s stick.
Last April Caps PR tweeted: Ovechkin’s 159 goaltenders scored on ranks fourth in NHL history, only trailing Jaromir Jagr (178), Patrick Marleau (177) and Mark Messier (164).
So one more goalie notch ties Messier for third.
And he has a chance to score against Vee and Sammy.
163 different goalies. By my count, 6,781 NHL players haven’t even recorded 163 goals.
Ovi ate his wheaties this morning. He looked like a young whopper-snapper out there. We
Ovi’s longevity is so impressive. Jeremy Brodeur, Martin’s son, was goalie for Stingrays’ first game this year. Now, I don’t see him in an NHL uniform soon, but the possibility is there that Ovi could score goals against father and son.