Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin ties NHL record with 17th 30-goal season

In the Saturday night game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin has scored his 30th goal of the season. The goal came at 17:56 of the first period and tied the game at one.

The goal came after a shot from the point from Capitals defenceman Trevor van Riemsdyk. The rebound bounced wide of the net and the Flyers’ Morgan Frost made a foolish play, giving the puck right back to the Capitals. At this point, Ovechkin picked up thee puck and tried to jam it in on the back-hand. His shot got blocked the first time but on the second try it went in.

This is an important milestone goal for Ovechkin, albeit not as important as the holy grail of goal-scoring records, Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goals. It marked the 17th season in which the Capitals’ captain reached 30 goals.

The goal ties Mike Gartner for the most 30-goal seasons in NHL history. Last season, when he hit 30 goals, Ovechkin moved past Jaromir Jagr’s 15 30-goal seasons in his 24 season career.

Ovechkin is currently playing in his 18th season of his career. The only one of those in which he didn’t reach 30 goals was 2020-21 when he only played 45 games, although he still managed to score 24 goals that year. This goal marks the 810th of his career, moving him to only 85 goals away from breaking Gretzky’s record.

The record was previously thought to be unreachable but against the odds, Ovechkin is writing history. Ovechkin missed his entire would-be rookie season in the 2005 lockout, missed half of the 2012-13 season due to another lockout, and missed about half a season of games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, he is not just on track to break the record, he’s on track to race past it. Ovechkin scored an impressive 50 goals last season and this year he’s on track for 55 goals at 37 years old.