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The NHL’s ‘off the beaten path’ records, including one that Alex Ovechkin could break

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Last night, I discussed the NHL.com story regarding the league’s “unbreakable” records. John Kreiser also added another wrinkle to the topic with a separate post including some of the records that are “off the beaten path.”

I thought I’d take a look at some of those wacky records, too. Let’s start with one that could be broken and move on to a few that would take quite the effort - or lack thereof - to ever be eclipsed.

Most shots on goal in an NHL career: Ray Bourque with 6,206

That’s an incredible 840 more than the runner-up, Marcel Dionne, who holds the mark for forwards with 5,366.

But Ovechkin appears to have a good chance to overtake Bourque -- he has 2,159 shots in his first five seasons, an average of more than 430. That pace would move Ovi past Bourque before he reaches his 35th birthday.

Highest career plus/minus: Larry Robinson with +730

Besides Robinson and Bourque, only Gretzky (plus-518) and Bobby Clarke (plus-506) are more than plus-500 for their careers. The active leader is Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom at plus-431 -- and he’s light years ahead of runner-up Patrik Elias of New Jersey, who’s plus-198.

My guess is that such a mark won’t ever be broken. Robinson clearly reaped the benefits of a much smaller NHL and a Montreal Canadiens franchise whose dominance might never be matched.

Most games played in a single regular season: Jimmy Carson, 86 games in the 1992-93 season with Detroit and Los Angeles

Finally, I’ll leave you with this interesting excerpt about scoring futility with a mild dose of efficency. We begin with a discussion of snake-bitten former Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Steve Halko. I highly recommend reading Kreiser’s full piece, by the way.

Halko managed 15 assists in his 155 NHL regular-season games, but never turned on the red light despite being credited with 96 shots on goal. That’s the most games played by anyone in NHL history without scoring at least once.

Halko was no longer a Hurricane in 2003-04 when Carolina called up a defenseman named Brad Fast for his lone NHL appearance. Fast made the most of his cameo, scoring a goal before being returned to the minors. He’s one of three players who have played only one NHL game and scored a goal -- the others are center Rolly Huard (Toronto, 1930-31) and defenseman Dean Morton (Detroit, 1989-90).

At least Halko managed to hit the score sheet -- unlike Gord Strate, a defenseman who played 61 games during parts of three seasons with Detroit in the late 1950s and never managed a point. No other player has skated in as many games without managing at least one point -- the runner-up is Frank “Frosty” Peters, who went 43 games without a point, all in 1930-31.