Thanks to the efforts of Ovi, Washington won an important victory over Anaheim. And his partner marked the goal with a spectacular fight.
The leader of Washington played another productive match in the regular season of the NHL, having chalked up two assists and an accurate bullet in the victorious game with Anaheim. It seems that he seriously swung to the title of top scorer.
While the public is now obsessive about how many goals Ovechkin has scored and how much closer he is to Wayne Gretzky's seemingly eternal record, the Capitals' Russian captain is more focused on the team's success. He postponed the 751st goal of his career until later, but for now he brought the shells for his teammates in time and was reliable in the shootout.
It is these matches that give Alexander true greatness!
Washington has stepped up security measures
Despite the fact that almost all NHL players have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, teams continue to lose hockey players due to illness. In late November, several Islanders matches were canceled due to the squad's eight hockey players being included in the COVID-19 security protocol. Washington is also in a slight crisis – for this reason, the team is playing without three players, who completed the protocol one after another over the past four days. For safety reasons, the Capitals even canceled Sunday practice and returned social distancing and masks in hopes of tamping down the epidemic on the team.
Way to the top
The victory in the match with the Ducks promised Washington the sole leadership in the Eastern Conference, so the capital club started the game actively, opening an account in the first period.
The scoring episode began with a throw-in scored by Yevgeny Kuznetsov. He gave the puck to Ovechkin, who rolled it to Justin Schultz. Schultz's pass was rounded out by Wilson. For the Capitals power forward, this puck became the hundredth in his career. He decided to celebrate the momentous event with a fight, which, surprisingly, was Wilson's debut this season. The striker, hated for the dirty tricks by the fans of the rest of the NHL teams, grappled with Simon Benoit and, as expected, won the fight, removing his helmet from his opponent and flopping him on the ice.
The twentieth gear of the season for Ovechkin did not pass by another record: having recorded 40 points after Wilson's goal, the Russian became the fourth player in the last 25 seasons in the NHL, who scored 20 goals and made 20 assists in the first 26 games of the season. On this list, Ovechkin has a very impressive company – Jaromir Jagr, Daniel Alfredsson and only one active forward – Leon Dreiseitl from Edmonton.
The Capitals' 21st assist came in handy: Ovechkin took advantage of an inaccurate pass from Ducks defender Josh Manson and, deciding not to shoot from close range, sacrificed the puck to John Carlson, who did not miss. So the Capitals made the score 3: 3, which remained until the shootout. There, Ovechkin also benefited the team, becoming the author of one of three accurate shots against Anaheim.
Prediction from Ovechkin Jr.
The Capitals' second goal was scored by Swedish forward Karl Hagelin, who opened the scoring for the season. At a press conference after the game, he said that he predicted the goal … Sergei Ovechkin, the eldest son of Alexander. The day before, Hagelin gave the baby a dummy toy, and after that Ovechkin Jr. told his father that he would definitely score. Ovechkin Sr. shared this with his team-mate before the match with Anaheim. “This little guy is worth listening to,” Hagelin remarked, pleased.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CI254yxgmm5
And even if in fact Sergei did not say anything, this is a great motivating move on the part of the captain of “Washington”.
Chasing Zubov and a couple from Edmonton
While Ovechkin's entire season has been chasing Gretzky's record for the most goals in NHL history, he's hitting or nearly breaking records in other categories along the way. Thus, two successful passes in the match against Anaheim brought him closer to the result of Sergei Zubov, who holds the record for assists among Russian NHL players. The veteran has 619 assists, Ovechkin now has 610. This record will be much easier and faster to beat than Gretzky's achievement.
Another goal for Ovechkin is a sweet couple of NHL top scorers from Edmonton. Leon Dreiseitl and Conor McDavid, who had not scored a single point the day before in their unsuccessful match against Los Angeles, gave Ovechkin a head start. He made good use of it, getting close to the Oilers leaders in the top scorers. The Russian became the third player of the season to break the 40-point mark. Now there is one point to McDavid and two to Dreiseitl.
- Ovechkin came in third in matches with 2+ points among European NHL players in history
- Dallas beat Arizona, Radulov scored two points