Capitals’ Ovechkin moves into fourth all-time in NHL hat tricks
It’s another milestone in the illustrious career of the GR8.
On Thursday night, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored a hat trick against the Utah Mammoth, marking the 34th of his NHL career. He passed Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull for the fourth-most three-goal performances in an NHL career.
OVECHKIN COMPLETES THE HATTY 40 years old. 29 goals on the season. 926 goals in his career. And now hat tricks against 21 different teams for yet ANOTHER NHL record 🤯🔥
The Mammoth became the 21st team that Ovechkin has scored a hat trick against, an NHL record. It was also the record 71st empty-net goal of his career. The 40-year-old now has 29 goals and 56 points in 73 games thus far.
Ovechkin’s performance came in a big win for Washington in Salt Lake City, as the team came away with a 7-4 victory over the Mammoth, snapping the Caps’ short two-game losing skid.
Ovi moves right in behind late Hall of Famer Mike Bossy (39) for the third-most hat tricks in league history. The duo trails fellow legends Mario Lemieux (40) and Wayne Gretzky (50).
It isn’t the first milestone that the Moscow native has hit this week. On Sunday, against the Colorado Avalanche, Ovechkin scored the 1,000th goal of his NHL career, both regular-season and postseason combined, making him just the second player in league history to reach that mark, after Gretzky, of course.
Ovechkin’s accomplishment only adds to an outstanding career that has almost nothing left to prove in his career. He helped the Capitals win their first Stanley Cup in 2018, and surpassed Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer last season.
Ovechkin has posted 1,679 points in 1,564 games. He’s won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award three times, the Art Ross Trophy, the Calder Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the Rocket Richard Trophy a record nine times.
The Capitals (36-28-9) are sixth in the Metropolitan Division, six points back of the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.