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At the conclusion of the Washington Capitals’ 4-1 victory on Friday over the Seattle Kraken at Capital One Arena, captain Alex Ovechkin scored his 16th goal of the season and 796th of his NHL career.
The goal came on an empty-net tally, one that followed an uproar of cheers from the Capitals faithful at Capital One Arena, knocking down former teammate Andre Burakovsky following his goal.
Alex Ovechkin gives the fans what they want with a neutral zone empty net tally for career goal #796!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/lSgxdEha9b
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) December 10, 2022
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The goal also marked The Great Eight’s 500th career Even-Strength Goal, ranking fourth behind Jaromir Jagr (538), Gordie Howe (566), and Wayne Gretzky (617).
Alex Ovechkin scores on an empty net to extend the lead to 4-1. The goal marks Ovechkin’s 500th career even strength goal.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 10, 2022
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As far as career goals go, he needs just four more goals to reach the 800-goal threshold, five more to tie Gordie Howe for second place on the all-time Goals Scored list, and six more to take sole possession as the NHL’s Second All-Time leading goal scorer.
Ovechkin is now four goals shy of 800 career goals and six goals shy of passing Gordie Howe (801) for second on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 10, 2022
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This particular empty-net goal was also the 52nd empty-net goal of his career. He has the second most empty-net goals in his career which is only behind Wayne Gretzky who has 56. This marks the first time in his NHL career that he had three consecutive goals that were empty-netters, given that he had two empty netters in the team’s previous game on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
This year has been full of milestones for Ovechkin, with more to come. On Tuesday, November 29, he broke a tie with Gretzky for most goals scored on the road. On November 5, he scored his 787th career goal, passing Gordie Howe for most goals with a single franchise.
By Diane Doyle
It is insane to think that Gordie Howe scored his 801st and final career tally on April 9, 1980, a good 9,310 days (25yrs, 5mths, 26 days) before the day Ovechkin scored Career Goals No.1 & 2 (October 5, 2005).
It’s easy to see why people believed that those records would never be broken.
Digging deep in the stat book. I like it. 😁👊
Another mind boggling fact is that just 46 players, as of this writing, have had 500 or more goals for their career, including Ovi. Ovi’s even strength total alone is at 500.