Alex Ovechkin made history once again Monday.
The 32-year-old forward scored twice in a 3-2 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets to become the 20th player and the only active player in the NHL to score 600.
Ovechkin is the fourth player to do it in fewer than 1,000 games (990), joining Wayne Gretzky (718), Mario Lemieux (719) and Brett Hull (900).
The goal itself was not the typical Ovechkin cannon blast. It was earned through hard work and persistence. He held his ground in a hectic sequence in the goal mouth. He collected his own rebounds while being dogged by the defense. One shot, two shots… and on the third, he flung it past goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.
A Very Special Player
Ovechkin was simply going to reach the milestone that night. That’s all there was to it. Anybody who doubted that was a fool. Alex Ovechkin is a force of nature.
There was something special about this one from the beginning.
He produced arguably the most amazing goal of all time:
That doesn’t just happen.
It is becoming hard to deny that Ovechkin is the best goal scorer in the history of the game. He is prolific and consistent. His raw stats put him in the top tiers of the stat books. But in light of how high scoring the game used to be, a one to one comparison would not paint an accurate picture. We have to view the productivity of players in context. Rate their performance against their contemporaries.
Since 1967-68, Ovechkin would rank fifth, behind Jagr, Gretzky, Brett Hull, who would have scored 863 adjusted goals in 1,256 games, and Teemu Selanne with 860 goals in 1,483 games.
There are obvious limitations to this approach, because there are many factors that influence a scoring totals beyond the average number of goals players scored per game. In the 1980s there were fewer teams (21), different equipment, variations in the rules, differences in the average number of power plays per game, the absence of an NHL salary cap, and less parity between teams. Though it's impossible to calculate an exact figure, there's no question Ovechkin would be closer to Gretzky's 894 if he had played in that era.
Ovechkin's 600 goals in his era qualifies him as one of the most accomplished goal-scorers of all time and leaves him not far removed from the top spot.
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