Alexander Ovechkin wants to attack Gretzky’s record. He has received full support from Washington

Even before the week of December 7, he was seven goals short of this goal, but with a shooting sprint in the last four games he made a strong step forward over the 2nd place in the historical table, which still belongs to Gordie Howe. “It’s a great honor. To be associated with Gordie, he’s the best company you can imagine when you start playing hockey.” he remarked after the Chicago game.

He could match or surpass Howe’s 801 goals as early as Friday night, when the Capitals welcome the Dallas Stars home. On the ice, the Blackhawks confirmed their shooting style, which also matches the performance of the Capitals. The team started December with two losses, followed by a win over Edmonton.

Ovechkin did not score in either of these duels, but from the next match with Philadelphia he managed it in four meetings in a row. The Capitals won all games and got the better of lackluster Chicago, against whom they scored seven goals for the first time on the season. Three of them were scored by Ovechkin, who, with his 29th career hat-trick, took 6th place in the number of three-goal matches.

On the ice in Chicago he scored in the first minute, and with 136 early goals he is already the only leader in this statistic. Jaromír Jágr, second in order, opened the scoring 135 times.

“I am the third person in history to score so many goals. Without my team-mates, without this organisation, without the fans and without my family, I would never have reached these numbers and we would never have talked about these numbers.” he remarked after the 800th goal, indicating that even Wayne Gretzky’s seemingly unsurpassed record of 894 goals may not stand.

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis also confirmed his ambition to clinch that goal in his recent statement, which indicated that while Ovechkin is aiming for the record, he won’t start rebuilding the team’s players. “Alex told me that he would not become a third formation player who would play eight minutes a game and score goals with power-ups alone. He asked me to promise him that we would keep the team competitive and with a chance of success in the playoffs He promised me he would still be fit, but he won’t fixate on the record, but on winning another Stanley Cup.

There will certainly be an influx of young players, but I wouldn’t call it a rebuild. A rebuild is when we look into each other’s eyes and say that our game and our results are really bad. And if we were that bad, Alex wouldn’t be able to break that record.” Leonsis said.

Ovechkin scored his 800th goal in 1,305 regular season games and, with a current career average of 0.61 goals per game, is better than both Gretzky and Howe. In goal totals in the regular season and playoffs, he peaks at 872, three goals ahead of Howe and 144 behind leader Gretzky. The fact that Sidney Crosby is closest to him among active players, who is behind him by a staggering 266 goals (534 so far), is also testament to the exceptional nature of his recent achievement.

With the current style of play (about 0.7 goals per game), another 50-goal season is realistic for the 37-year-old Ovechkin. If he achieved it, it would already be a record 10th for him, which would make him independent in 1st place of historical statistics also in this indicator. He currently shares the lead with Gretzky and Mike Bossy.