Look, there’s no denying that Alex Ovechkin scores a lot of goals from “his office,” aka the left faceoff circle, particularly during power plays.
When you’re as prolific a scorer as Ovechkin still is, that’s far from the only situation where you’re dangerous. If Jaccob Slavin and the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t understand that already, Tuesday slammed that point home ... well, like an Ovechkin wrister.
Ovechkin made the Hurricanes miserable late in this game, grabbing the Washington Capitals a point with this goal, after Slavin turned the puck over to Nicklas Backstrom:
Ovechkin really did it all on the 5-4 overtime-winner, as Slavin had no hope on that beauty (see the goal in the video above this post’s headline). It’s worth noting that Slavin has quietly developed into one of the steadiest young blueliners in the NHL, making Ovechkin’s dominance that much more impressive. Poor Slavin.
It’s fitting that Backstrom was the only player to grab assists on both of Ovechkin’s goals tonight, as number 8 made some interesting history.
Alex Ovechkin of the @Capitals is the fourth player in NHL history to score 25+ goals in each of his first 13 seasons, joining Jaromir Jagr (17 seasons), Mike Gartner (15 seasons) and Wayne Gretzky (13 seasons). #NHLStats #WSHvsCAR @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/G3TLOSzD1U
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 3, 2018
Hot take: passing a Wayne Gretzky mark with the Edmonton Oilers is rarely a bad thing.
Ovechkin has passed Wayne Gretzky (Oilers) for sixth all-time in goals scored with a single franchise. pic.twitter.com/bJwGir78EH
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 3, 2018
Bonus points to Ovechkin for doing so in such a spectacular way, too.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.