Capitals believe Ovechkin can surpass Gretzky's goal record this season
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Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is entering his 20th NHL season and it could be a historical one for him and the league.
The 6-foot-3 winger is sitting in second in NHL history with 853 goals, only 42 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s legendary record of 894, which was once thought to be unbreakable.
Ovechkin, who turns 39 on Sept. 17, is coming off a year that saw him record 31 goals and 65 points in 79 games. That is the lowest goal total he’s had in a non-shortened season in his career.
Despite signs of slowing down, both head coach Spencer Carbery and newly minted general manager Chris Patrick believe that breaking Gretzky’s record this season is not out of the realm of possibility.
“Do I think he can score 42 goals this year? Yes, I do,” Carbery told Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he could [reach that total] because of how talented a scorer he is.”
“’Ovi’ has done so many things that people never thought he could do, so I think it’s on the table fore sure,” said Patrick.
The Capitals are coming off a season that saw them finish fourth in the Metropolitan Division with a 40-31-11 record, which was good enough to claim the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
They went up against the Presidents’ Trophy winning New York Rangers in the first round, where they were dispatched in four games. Ovechkin failed to record a point on five shots in the playoffs, while averaging 19:35 of ice time.
Carbery says that he expects Ovechkin to be disappointed by his playoff performance last season and has discussed cutting down his average ice time of 19:13 this season, in order to get fresher shifts from his captain.
However, the Capitals believe that being able to relax in the off-season with his family will be key to help Ovechkin reset for next season.
“People have to also remember that Alex is 38, turning 39,” said Carbery. “He’s done this for a long, long time, he’s got a family, kids, so at the end of the year he also needs time to be able to reset mentally and get away from the game of hockey.”
Patrick has also done his part to improve the Capitals roster to help surround Ovechkin with talented players. The team acquired forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Andrew Mangiapane, defenceman Jakob Chychrun, and goaltender Logan Thompson all through the trade market this off-season.
They also shored up their defensive corps by signing Matt Roy to a six-year $34.5 million deal through free agency.
The additions give the Capitals more talent to work with so teams are not just focused on stopping Ovechkin in order to win.
“Maybe Ovi gets an opportunity against an easier matchup for a couple of shifts or whatever it is, and he can take advantage,” said Patrick. “For any scorer to have success you want to try to get him good matchups, and the best way to do that is to make it harder on teams to match lines. So I think we helped that cause by some of the moves we made.”