Even when Alex Ovechkin has a down year by his goal scoring standards, he still puts up huge totals with historical significance.
After three-straight 50-goal seasons, Ovechkin hit the 30-goal plateau it Game 74 this season, making it highly unlikely he reaches 40 — it would be the first time he fails to hit that total in a full season since 2011-12 when he got 38.
But there was still something significant about his 30th of the season.
With that goal, Ovechkin became just the third player in NHL history to score at least 30 in each of his first 12 seasons. Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Mike Gartner were the other two to do it — both of whom played through the high-scoring 1980s.
It’s interesting to note that Gretzky went 13 straight years at the start of his career with 30 goals before failing to hit the mark, while Gartner holds the all-time record by doing it for 15 straight years.
In 2015, Steve Burtch built a case for why, when you adjust for era, Ovechkin could be the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL.
As it stands, the 31-year-old is 340 goals shy of Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record of 894. If he doesn’t score another this season, he would need to average 37.7 goals per season for the next nine years to take down this Gretzky record.
Can he do it? Whether or not you think he can, the mere fact it’s even a possibility is amazing.
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