4 things we learned in the NHL: Ovechkin makes history with 50th goal

Watch as Alex Ovechkin beats Andrei Vasilevskiy to reach 50-goals in a season for the eighth time in his career.

Alex Ovechkin got back into the 50-goal column, Cam Atkinson matches an old Blue Jackets milestone and the Presidents’ Trophy made a trip to Tampa Bay.

Here are four things we learned in the NHL last night.

Ovechkin makes NHL history with milestone goal

With his 50th goal of the year against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Alex Ovechkin joined Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky as the only players to reach 50 in eight or more seasons in their career. The Washington Capitals captain can also match Gretzky and Bossy’s mark of nine seasons with 50 or more goals starting next year.

At 33-years-old, Ovechkin also became the third-oldest player in history to reach the milestone with Johnny Bucyk owning the record when he had 50 as a 35-year-old back in the 1970-71 season.

The Russian moved past Phil Esposito for fifth place on the all-time list with his 247th power-play goal, which also put him in a tie with Luc Robitaille for fourth place.

His teammate Nicklas Backstrom also joined Joe Thornton as the only active player to record at least four straight seasons with 20 or more goals and 50 or more assists in a season. Thornton accomplished the feat from 2002-03 to 2009-10.

Atkinson catches Nash for Blue Jackets’ franchise record

The last time Columbus had a 40-goal scorer was the 2008-09 campaign when Rick Nash hit that plateau. Atkinson is now only the second player in franchise history to reach the milestone.

Atkinson also matched Nash for the Blue Jackets’ single-season record for goals in a season with four games left to go in the season. The 29-year-old now has 41 goals, 27 assists and 68 points in 75 games as Columbus continues its push for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

He also has the third-most shorthanded goals since the start of the 2016-17 season with eight, trailing Michael Grabner – who has nine – and Viktor Arvidsson who leads the way with 10.

Anaheim Ducks make uncharacteristic blunder

When interim head coach Bob Murray handed in his lineup card on Saturday night, he made one small error which could have been very costly. Defenceman Jake Dotchin was listed as a scratch by the Ducks instead of Troy Terry.

At 17:42 of the first period, referees skated over to the Anaheim bench to tell the coaching staff that Dotchin was ineligible to play as a result. This forced the Ducks to go with five defencemen against the Edmonton Oilers.

While this was obviously an accidental error by the coaches, it is hard to see how they miscounted the number of defencemen listed on the lineup card. Dotchin wasn’t too thrilled to find out as he had to go to the dressing room in disbelief.

Fortunately for Anaheim, that didn’t prove to be a tough task to overcome as the Ducks beat the Oilers 5-1.

Golden Knights reach 200 points

Last season the Vegas Golden Knights were the Cinderella story of the NHL, and they could repeat last year’s playoff success.

With their overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks, Vegas reached 200 points as a franchise in 162 games, the fewest in NHL history.

It wasn’t long ago that Vegas was being written off after a slow start to the season, but their improved goaltending and Nate Schmidt’s return have been key factors in the turnaround. It doesn’t hurt that they made a big splash at the trade deadline getting Mark Stone, either.

Since acquiring Stone at the trade deadline, the Golden Knights are 10-4-2 and sit third in the Pacific Division with a 42-30-7 record after surprising the NHL with a 51-24-7 record last year.

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