Alex Ovechkin likes record books, presumably because he likes re-writing them with his name all over the place.
The Washington Capitals captain had two goals through two periods against the Toronto Maple Leafs, his 574rd and 575th, which moved Ovechkin from beside Mike Bossy in a tie for 21st place, into sole possession of the spot on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list.
Update: Ovechkin added an empty-net for his 20th career hat trick, tying him with Pavel Bure for most ever by a Russian-born player.
The goal to take sole possession was vintage Ovi, complete with booing fans as a soundtrack:
Alex Ovechkin picks up the puck as the boos reign down and then scores and silences the Toronto crowd pic.twitter.com/lj4szg099J
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) November 26, 2017
And here is his second goal of the game, also vintage Ovi:
With the hat trick, Ovechkin moved himself to within a goal of a tie for 20th with Mark Recchi, who sits in the 20th spot with 577 career goals.
The goal scoring is pretty incredible in its own right, Ovechkin has four markers in his past three games, and then this little nugget popped up on Twitter:
Always incredible: Alex Ovechkin has now recorded 115 career multi-goal games, passing Teemu Selanne (114) for most since 1993-94. Ovechkin debuted in 2005-06.
— Matt Williams (@StatsWilliams) November 26, 2017
That’s insane.
But wait, there’s more:
Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals scored his 217th career power-play goal to tie Mike Gartner and Jaromir Jagr for 10th on the NHL’s all-time list. #NHLStats #WSHvsTOR pic.twitter.com/5DdzmrFs3k
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 26, 2017
Isn’t hockey fun?
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck